Well, it was going to happen eventually
by minlake14
Summary: It's Clara's first year at Hogwarts which is so utterly different from her home in the lake district. Despite her worry she will make amazing friends and discover something totally new, that will change her childhood...
1. Chapter 1

Fanfiction Story-Harry Potter

The steam rose from the platform; in vast quantities. No one seemed to mind though; everyone was exceedingly happy and smiling. It was like a huge reunion only it was the platform to the train that took all these children to school. There were those few who looked confused but very excited at the same time, sort of taking everything in at once, completely in awe of it all. They were the first-years. First-year at this new school, a completely different environment. Evidently they were always excitable and hyper, which obviously annoyed the older children to no end.

Clara stood very worried but excited with her mum and sister Katie on the platform.

"Honey, you'll do fine. It will be a lot of fun, and you'll get to meet loads of new people who are like you, "her mum said reassuringly. Clara wasn't convinced though and still looked nervous.

"But what if I hate it there, or I they are horrible, or If...If…"she said, all really fast and worried, before her mum cut in.

"It is going to be fine, look around you, "she said making her turn around to all the beaming faces, "Look they are all so happy, and overjoyed to be here."

"Okay, but promise you'll write all the time, and take me home if I hate it."

"Of course honey, "she said pulling her into a big hug, kissing her forehead.

Clara breathed in nervously and hugged Katie, and waved as she walked onto the closest train door. There were all manners of weird objects, brooms, owls, ferrets, and trunks, well even she had one of those, and in fairness she did have her cat Moira with her as well. Moira purred softly, as she walked on.

She put her trunk onto the cart just inside the train door. After loading it she took her rucksack and Moira, and she continued to walk down the corridor, just as the train pulled out from the station. She just ran back to the window on the door quickly and along with many others, she waved and smiled at Katie and her mum, as the train left the station, at 11:00 exactly.

She then went back to walking down to a free or near free compartment. She passed multiple full compartments and couldn't find a free or semi-free for that matter one. Finally she got to near the end of the train and she found one with around five people in and just decided that this was better than nothing. She slid the door open and was met with smiling friendly faces.

"Umm, sorry. Do you mind if I sit here with you? It's only I don't know anyone and everywhere full. "Clara said nervously, hoping for a yes. Very quickly a boy of the same age answered.

"Of course, it's our first year too, "he said grinning, "Umm, I'm is Rose and Louis. He said pointing to a very ginger girl sitting by the window with a book on her lap and a boy staring out of the window. "There are a few others, but they're not here right now. He sat back down still smiling. Clara sat down on the right side closest to the door and shoved her rucksack onto the top shelf. She kept Moira on her lap stroking her, every once in a while.

"Well I'm Clara, and this is Moira", she said stroking her cat as she purred. Albus leaned over and stroked Moira as well, chuckling slightly as Moira meowed quietly. Rose smiled and opened her book back up and read occasionally turning to stare into the window; the bleak rainy countryside with the rolling hills and lone farms. The boy Albus had called Louis just continued to stare into the window, clearly in deep thought.

"So who are you?" Albus said after an awkward ten minutes silence

"I already told you, Clara," She said looking confused.

"No like in the wizarding world, what do your parents do? Did they go here too?" He asked eagerly.

"No my mum didn't go here. My dad…"She started just as three people walked into the compartment. They must be the others Albus had mentioned, Clara thought to herself. They walked in, chatting and laughing and stopped when they saw Clara sitting there. Albus quickly stepped in.

"This is Clara she's in my year and new. This is James," He said gesturing to the taller boy with untamed brown hair, "This is Fred and Molly." He said as he pointed to the two dark gingers, who waved. The boys sat between Albus and Louis and Molly sat between Clara and Rose.

Molly, who hated silence, quickly spoke, eager to break the awkwardness

"Hi, as you know I'm Molly, their cousin." She said cheerily.

"Like, all of them?" Clara asked in disbelief.

"Well, know who we are, right?" She said questioningly. Everyone else in the compartment had stopped what they were doing, and were all staring at her. The stares were making her slightly uncomfortable, sweat trickled down her back. They were all unsure whether she was being genuine.

"No. Should I? "She said slightly puzzled at the odd looks around the compartment.

"Are you being serious? "James said.

Clara just shrugged. She clearly wasn't aware who they were. They all just looked at each other with a weird look still unsure what exactly was going on, as if all of a sudden she was going to get up and start laughing at them. They all stayed silent for a moment, not really sure what to say. This hadn't happened before and honestly they were glad she didn't know; they knew it would make it easier if they were friends. There had been so many people that had come up to them, and had obsessed over them, and their parents. After a few minutes Louis spoke, rather annoyed that nothing had been said for about five minutes, and Clara was beginning to look very befuddled.

"Well basically our parents are very famous in the wizarding world, and this hasn't happened before."

"My parents weren't like me so I wouldn't know about all this. I just am sort of going with it at the moment, after Diagon Ally I gave up on everything ordinary, but didn't look into anything like history of Magic." She responded.

"Oh that makes sense, we were worried for a second that you were going to jump up and start laughing at us or something," Fred said jokingly. He chuckled for a bit before it fizzled out as it had become quite awkward.

"Here we call it if you have muggle parents, you're a are pure-bloods, apart from Rose, our grandparents were all wizards and witches. It is nothing bad, I swear." Molly informed.

"What are muggles, I expect they are normal folk, am I right?" She asked. Rose and Molly nodded.

The others soon began informing Clara of all manner of things in the Wizarding World from Azkaban to Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans; mentioning the beans just as the old lady pulled the food trolley up to the side of the door, and said, as she always did,

"Anything from the trolley dears?"

They all shook their heads before Rose stood up and handed five Galleons over for a big pack of the beans. As she sat back down she mumbled something about "sharing" and "letting her try". She ripped open the pack and gestured for everyone to have one. They all reached in peering at the wide selection picked one out as did the others.

"Okay, put it into your mouth and guess the flavour in three, two, and one!" Rose said. They all chewed down on their sweets a few scrunching up their faces as some smiled sheepishly.

"Cor'Bogey ,"Louis said chewing it with caution.

"Haha, pumpkin juice!" James said grinning like the Cheshire cat to his cousin.

"Apple Pie," Fred said shrugging "Isn't that bad."

"What did you get?" Molly asked as she turned to her right, to Clara.

"I think its, cheese," she said shrugging it off, "mm actually isn't that bad."

They all looked at her like she was mental.

"I am being serious!"

They all started laughing continued to chat and laugh consistently whilst they were on the long journey to school. When they were nearing Hogwarts they all parted and got changed into their robes. And got their stuff together, and started talking about more serious things. Molly left to go speak to one of her other friends in another compartment about something to do with a teacher. The boys began a huge debate about Quidditch, a sport which Clara knew little about, so she got out her book and read. She put it back when they were ten minutes away from the school. They all put their stuff back and sat quietly, staring out the window. As it was Albus', Rose's and Louis' first year also, they were also mesmerised by the new scenery and were very excited to see the school. They had only heard what it was like from family members all of whom loved being there.

Soon after Molly returned they drew up to Hogsmeade station and were met with Hagrid, which caused most people to smile cheerily, as they stepped of the train. James, Molly and Fred left to take the messing with Albus as he walked off laughing at his brother who looked quite nervous. As they walked off he could slightly hear Molly getting annoyed at him for playing with him, as he knew he was worried.

Albus looked a little lost as he walked over to the huge half-giant with the friendly face carrying the huge lantern leading the way. He had actually met him before, when he was younger at various gatherings. His parents were very good friends with him, he had aided them when they were younger.

After the murmurs died down Hagrid walked off the side of the platform and to an array of small boats that they noticed didn't have any oars. They got into fours and clambered into the boats. Not sure what was going to happen as they knew that to go oars were required. Clara looked quizzically at Hagrid who in all honesty she was rather scared of.

All of a sudden the boats left the shore, and moved without any aid it seemed. Rose who was on the boat with Clara, Albus and Louis told them they were charmed and went on to talk about Hogwarts: A history. Clara gathered from the rolling of the boy's eyes that this was something she did on a regular basis and whilst pretending to not be listening she was really listening in on the talk as in all honesty it did fascinate her.

When they had left the darkness and turned into the middle of the lake they finally got a look at the school. And they were all mesmerised about how awe-inspiring it was. The tall turrets, the high towers, the lights shining from the huge hall. They were all silent and staring at the sight in front of them as they rode into the other shore, eagerly waiting what was to happen next. Clara was just so overwhelmed by all the lights dancing across the water, unlike anything she'd seen before. It was a whole different atmosphere from her small village she'd grown up in. It was all just so magical. Most knew what was coming, but there were those few who didn't, Clara being one of them, was just taking everything in and was quite disappointed when she realised they had reached the water's edge and they all go out and went up to the looming castle.

After they got in the walked up through the entrance hall, up through a flight of stairs, where at the top a young, cheery face stood. After everyone had gathered at the top. The cheery teacher began,

"Hello Everyone! I'm Professor Longbottom, Herbology professor here at Hogwarts. In a minute you are going to walk through these doors into the Great Hall; where you'll get sorted into one of the four houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. You'll get sorted then you'll sit with your peers. The houses will be your homes for the next seven years. They will be where you sleep; who you have your lessons with and were most of you will find your friends though inter-house friends are highly encouraged. So that's enough from me. Welcome, to Hogwarts!" Professor Longbottom said before smiling to Rose, Louis and Albus and stepping away so the doors could open.

All the first-years who had already been astonished from seeing the castle for the first time were even more astounded after they'd walked in. They gazed around at the many friendly faces and the floating candles. There was just so much it was amazing! They were all gasping in awe of what they were witnessing. After a few quiet mumbles they reached the top where an old hat stood on a stool with a scroll of parchment lying next to it. Professor Longbottom spoke again after picking up the parchment.

"I know everyone's eagerly awaiting the welcome back feast. So I'll try and get this done quite quickly. I will call you up one by one and you'll have the sorting hat placed on your head which will determine which house you will get sorted into. So let's commence."

Suddenly the hat burst into song, which took all the first-years by surprise. But the rest of the school just listened which Clara presumed meant that this was normal or an annual thing. After a fairly long song about friendships and uniting everyone stood up and cheered and clapped. It was then that Clara noticed the others who'd been in her compartment all siting together on one of the long tables. The table was scattered with red lined uniform, which indicated that it was Gryffindor.

"Okay first up, Alney, Josh"

A small blonde haired boy stood up and sat on the stool. He looked totally unfazed by what was occurring. After a few seconds the hat roared,

"RAVENCLAW"

The table littered with blue cheered as the Josh ambled over to the table where he was greeted by many handshakes and a smattering of well done.

"Arnic, Christy"

"HUFFLEPUFF," the hat roared after around thirty seconds.

The hat went through a variety of names until it reached L.

"Lake, Clara," she walked up nervously to the top step where she cautiously placed the hat on her head, where it contemplated her house.

"Hmm, we have a lot going on here don't we. Cleverness and Intelligence. Hmm a lot of that, but courage so much courage. Where to put you, where to put you? You are tricky aren't you, but I think so much courage, I'll say GRYFFINDOR!" The hat roared after speaking only to her about the choices. The red house roared with happiness, and clapped, after Clara breathed a sigh of relief and calmly walked over to the end of the table where a small ginger girl sat opposite called Annabel. Clara was sitting next to Molly which assured her that everything was fine. She composed herself before introducing herself to Annabel. Then the sorting continued as Professor Longbottom called the next name.

"Longley, Chris"

The boy of that name stood up and walked up to the hat and almost as if it never even had touched his head it roared,

"RAVENCLAW"

"Next Malfoy, Scorpius," the professor said before the hall hushed silent, eagerly awaiting the answer. Almost all of them new of his father, the wicked Slytherin who'd turned out different. Maybe Scorpius would be a Gryffindor, and would take leave from the Slytherin family? They waited in hushed silence for four minutes as the nervous boy sat and talked to the sleek blonde haired boy. After the fourth anxious minute the silence rose and whispers started creeping up at the hat stall that was commencing. Soon after the hat finally spoke,

"SLYTHERIN," he roared, everyone let out a sort of sigh of relief, well the Gryffindor's did; they weren't all that keen on having a Malfoy after what the last ones had been like. They weren't against the house as their ancestors had been, just there was a bit of frostiness in the air about it still. But Slytherin had gained a new inmate and a famous one too. Everyone clapped enthusiastically.

The sorting continued. It finally got to P and Albus was feeling hot and sticky on the back of his neck as he waited nervously. He ran what his father had said to him on the platform through his head multiple times. Wishing not to be a Slytherin secretly despite what he'd said. Hopefully I'll be with Rose, Clara and Louis in Gryffindor along with my ancestors. He took depth breaths as the Professor said his name.

"Potter, Albus," The hall went silent once again as it had for the Malfoy. The professor turned to Albus who looked exceedingly nervous and gave him his familiar smile, as he placed the hat on his head. The hat deliberated for a while going through the same procedure it had for his father, but this time with Ravenclaw also. Everyone was staring at him waiting to see where the famous Harry Potter's youngest son would place, making the house even more famous and brilliant. Also everyone was expecting him to be placed where everyone else has, Gryffindor. He was just so nervous and worried about disappointing them. The sweat was building on the back of his neck. Finally the hat had decided.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat roared once again. The cheers were much louder this time; he had taken his place where his elders had also gone. He was exceedingly relived and swore to never tell anyone of the conversation he'd had with the hat. He continued to smile as he walked over to the table and sat next to Clara as the cheers continued. His brother just rolled his eyes as he sat down and started introducing himself to his classmates.

The professor continued to go through the names, until there was just a few left. Rose, Louis, a boy called Tom and a tall Blonde called Rachel.

"Weasley, Louis," he said in the usual tone that was once again met with hushed silence. The blonde haired, quiet boy got up and after about twenty seconds the hat spoke,

"GRYFFINDOR!" It appeared that he'd been placed with his family once again. His sisters Dominque and Victoire clapped and cheered the loudest as everyone stood up as he once again walked over to the ever cheerful table.

"Weasley, Rose," he said and the wild ginger composed herself as she began cautiously walking up to the stool. She was behaving exactly like her mother had over 25 years ago. She once again was a hat stall and the same silence was around the room as the hat deliberated between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. A full six minutes later, after everyone was bored out of their wits, the hat had decided, roaring the Red house.

As she gladly walked over to the house of her family. A huge smile washed over her as she sat opposite her cousins and next to a girl called Eliza. The sorting still continued. Thomas Zambini to Slytherin and Rachel Winey to Hufflepuff. Everyone clapped, though secretly awaiting the feast that would commence shortly. No one was really paying any attention to the headmistress that was speaking after the sorting had ended. Eventually she ended her speech and the food appeared all along the table. The first-years were now completely unfazed by what they'd just witnessed due to all the other things they'd seen so far that evening.

There was a wide variety of food lying before them: sausages, mash potatoes, meats, greens, and copious amounts of veg. They all ate as much as humanly possible and drank loads of pumpkin juice, which was like nothing like anything Clara had ever drank before. The talk soon turned to new teachers and school as they started to finish there dinner.

"So who's new this year?" James said turning to his cousin Victoire who was in her final year at school. Victoire surveyed the teachers table as she munched her mash with gravy. There were a few new teachers.

"Well obvs, Longbottoms still here. Also apparently when McGonagall eventually leaves he'll get the job as headmaster. Well Professor Collins left so we need a new astronomy professor. There are three new ones at the table so one of them," Victoire said as she looked away from the others, "We also need a new transfiguration professor as thank god Maybin left, and DADA needs another one as well as per usual." She said as she spotted the three new teachers talking to each other and their fellow colleagues. There was a neat brown haired lady, a stern looking young male and a young lady who looked as if she'd only just left Hogwarts the previous year.

"I haven't seen any of the new ones before, I wonder who they are?" Molly said airily just as the Headmistress got up to answer her very question.

"Welcome once again! This year promises to be great and many things will be achieved I hope. Good luck to those taking exams I hope you will all fair well, " the kind but stern teacher said, " This year we have three new professors. Professor Kirk that will be teaching Defence against the Dark Arts," The stern male stood up as the school clapped meagrely," Professor Pentanble who will be teaching astronomy," the young woman stood as the rather lame clapping continued. "And finally Professor Clearwater who will be taking the place of Transfiguration. "The neat lady stood up as the school clapped with a bit more enthusiasm from last time as a few knew her, she was friends with Molly's father.

"Sadly we had to say goodbye to Professor Maybin, Collins and Hawk at the end of last year but we assure you that these teachers will do brilliantly. So thank you. Finally I just hope that this year will be good so good luck, and dig in to pudding." She said before going back round to the table where all the old food had cleared and now various puddings stood. Everyone dug into the trifle and treacle tarts, James and Albus' favourite. The atmosphere all around that evening was excellent. The first-years who had once been very nervous were now in their element and enjoying meeting all the new people and the wide variety of puddings to choose from. Later on the food vanished once again and for the last time of the evening the headmistress rose and made the final announcements about the forbidden forest and where all the other places that were forbidden was. Warning them of the dangers that they'd face. She then before exciting told the prefects to lead their first-years to their towers and for the rest to follow on afterwards.

Clara got up with the others and was smiling sheepishly as they went up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower past all the moving paintings and wonderful things that were beyond her imagination

"This is amazing isn't it?" Rose said to Clara as they reached the final steps to the fat ladies portrait.

"It's wonderful!" She said as she stared up at the huge moving staircases up above. The prefect who was called Charles Hornby lead them into the common room where they all waited eagerly for their next instructions, marvelling at the room with the shabby chairs and big fireplace that was keeping it warm.

"In the girl's dorms, Dorm A is Clara Lake, Eliza Cherish, Annabel Green, Poppy Millan and Rose Weasley. Your things are all in that room which is up the flight of stairs on your left. Dorm A for the boys is Albus Potter, Louis Weasley, John Stroud, Chris Wood and Lewis Ebbleton. Can you guys go up there now? Boys, your dorm is the same directions as the girls but yours is on the right. Everyone else that's left are in the B dorms. After the people in A have gone I'll sort you out," Charles said as he motioned upstairs when saying the directions, after reading off the paper he was holding.

Clara gave a smile towards Rose as they went up the stairs.

"This is like actually happening now. This is real!" Clara said excitedly as she rushed up the stairs with Rose.

"I know my parents said it was wonderful here but not this amazing!" she said marvelling at the ceiling and walls with tapestries around them. When they finally got to their room Clara, Eliza, Annabel, Poppy and Rose opened the door into their home for the next seven years. Clara quickly sprang onto the bed next to the biggest window, Rose sitting opposite her laughing as they started bouncing on them seeing how springy they were. Annabel went on the total other side of the room and Poppy next to her and Eliza on Clara's other side.

They all sighed in relief as they flung themselves on their beds once again, before they all burst out in giggles. They all yawned which was then they realised just how tired they actually were. They all quickly got their stuff together and changed did their teeth and then threw themselves on their beds.

"Night, Everyone!" Rose said rather quietly as she drifted slowly off to sleep. Clara thought to herself for a while whilst everyone's breathing slowed into a soft rumble. Despite how tired she was, she just couldn't sleep everything that was happening was so amazing. She just thought to herself that this year would be the best year of her life.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:Hi!Thanks so much if you have read and liked this story, it is much Review, constructive criticism is welcome. Thank you once again becausei'mageek, and ezzirulez, your help is most welcome.I hope you enjoy this chapter, I don't think is as good as the first, I'm trying :)Sorry this was late, I will aim to upload weekly on a tuesday**

The sun cascaded across the room, creating a slash across Clara's face. The light made the dust particles dance and shine in the light, making them look like sparkles in the early morning sun. The room was still despite the dust particles, the five sleeping girls silent bar the rumble of deep sleep. Their dreams in their minds, giving light to the exciting adventures that were to come. All of Hogwarts was still on the first morning at school; almost no one was awake at that time, even though it was around five minutes until they had to all wake up in time for breakfast at eight o'clock. The stillness was beginning to get uncomfortable, the light irritating the eyes as it was too bright.

Clara's eyes flickered wearily as she awoke from her slumber. She battered her eyelids adjusting to the brightness of the early morning. After a few moments she gradually, properly woke up, sitting slouched just seconds later. She rubbed her eyes as she surveyed her new surroundings. She looked around in search of a clock, then realised that she had forgotten to remove her watch last night due to her fatigue. It read seven twenty seven; three minutes till when she had been advised to wake up. She lounged back into her bed before groaning and swinging her legs back out the side.

She slowly got up moaning as she went, being careful not to wake everyone else in the dorm. She wandered into the room she believed to be the bathroom. She looked into the mirror that lay above the sink, staring at her reflection. She had wild golden blonde curls that were barely ever tame. At that present moment she looked quite literally like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. She rubbed her eyes once more, groggily as she brushed her teeth before returning to her dorm.

She sort of stumbled/galumphed her way back to her bed to grab her things before waking the others up. They all continued to lie peacefully in their sleep. But as she was stumbling half-asleep back to the bathroom she tripped, falling over with a thud onto the hard floor. She cursed under her breath, before getting back up. Though in her tumble it appeared that she had woken Rose, who a few seconds later sat bolt upright and scanned the room like a hawk cautiously.

"Oh no! What's the time? I've overslept. I've missed school. What's my mum going to say? My first day back and I miss it. She's going to kill me!" Rose cried nervously at Clara who rolled her eyes, before explaining how early it was.

"Rose, it's like seven thirty, you're early. Come on get up, we need to wake up the others in a moment," she said before asking, "I'm going in the bathroom to get changed. You don't mind do you?"

"No that's fine. I'll wake the others then I'll get changed actually," she said sleepily rubbing her eyes. Clara re-gathered her things and walked into the bathroom, emerging later to find three girls waiting on their beds, sorting their things.

"I swear there are five of us," Clara said as she looked round questionably, after stopping abruptly as she left the bathroom, "What's her name? Elsa…Emma…El...Eli?"

"Eliza. Yeah, she won't wake up," Rose said casually as she flicked through some books before reaching for her things and walking into the bathroom. Clara sighed tiredly and walked over to Eliza's bed where she took out the alarm clock that was on the bedside table. She turned the dial so it reached a minute before the current time. She set it down on the pillow next to Eliza's ear.

Annabel looked so confused, and sort of worried for Eliza, who despite the fact that she didn't know her further than her name. She was anxious for Eliza who could react many ways to the situation; she hoped it would be laughing it off and nothing against her. She just shook her head and continued with what she was doing

A minute later she found out what the answer was. The alarm blared from the simple black alarm clock. It ran all through all through the dorm, very loudly. Even Rose shouted 'What was that' from the bathroom despite it having _Muffliato_ on the walls.

"It was an alarm!" Poppy shouted back. Eliza, who already was grumpy from the alarm, pushed her hands back to her head.

"God Poppy! You do realise that the time is _before_ eight in the morning," Eliza said as she rubbed her head once more, "Ahhh! I hate mornings," she grumbled as she begrudgingly ambled over to the mirror in the dorm.

"Don't we know," Clara tutted airily as she left her bed and looked out the window from the ledge that acted as a seat to all. The girls could see the black lake from their dorm; the deep water glistened in the early morning light. The water rippled gently due to the very light breeze that was present that morning. There were few clouds around, so the sun beamed across the valley that Hogwarts was in. No one was outside; or so she thought.

On a bench just outside the Owlery, Albus Severus Potter sat, already dressed in his school uniform, minus the cloak but in a coat. He rubbed his hands together in the crisp air, because despite the bright sun, the air was still crisp and had a sort of autumnal feel to it. There were multiple reasons as to why he was out there so early; firstly he had woken up at five am, so the open air seemed like a good plan that morning. Also early morning walks were his thing; back home on many mornings, when he hadn't had that much sleep or just had awoken early, he would grab his coat and shoes and walk round the small village that the Potters lived in. It was a _very_ small village with no shop, pub or post office, just public foot paths, farms and houses. He would walk right up to the furthest farm that still counted as inside the small area then would walk back across the huge fields that were usually used for rape plants. During the summer, walking across those fields, it felt like walking through triffids( he hadn't read 'Day of the Triffids', but his aunt Hermione had. Once he had walked with her when she had taken an interest in where he went often in the mornings).

That morning at about quarter to eight he was sat on the small bench, pondering over all that was to come. The year that he was about to experience was going to be one of the best he had ever had; but he didn't know that yet. He held his hands now in front of his face, as if praying, but it was just a habit he had for when he was thinking, hard. He didn't have a clue why he did it though.

Everything was getting to him. His mum always said to come outside when it got too much, he wasn't very good at coping with a lot going on. He worried often because of this. He could just picture his mum rubbing his back saying softly that it was fine, it reassured him that she was just a floo or a letter away, but she wasn't actually present. It wasn't like he had never been away from his parents before, he had often stayed at family members places, but this was the first definite not seeing them for months. But he could always just contact them. He was just nervous for the future as he should be. He then sighed heavily and got up, and walked back to his dorm to get ready for breakfast.

Ten minutes later five tired girls walked down the stairs chattering as they went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. They walked into the somewhat cheery atmosphere of the giant hall. Clara looked around the room for the people she was searching for. She found them sitting next to their siblings talking to them loudly. She then walked with a bit more purpose, and with Rose she sat down. She was opposite Albus and Louis opposite Rose. The talk was on Quidditch once again, Rose immediately rolled her eyes when she heard what they were talking about.

"No they aren't going to win! You must be joking they will never win! NEVER!" James exclaimed louder than the rest as he buttered his toast.

" _You're_ the one that's joking!" Fred exclaimed.

Molly who was sitting beside Clara, also wasn't that interested in Quidditch so was talking to a boy sitting next to James.

"So do you like books?" Rose said, as there weren't any conversations that really struck her fancy.

"Yeah, I read loads. I am guessing you do to; you were reading yesterday on the train," Clara replied as she dug into her cereal. Cereal that her mum wouldn't approve of, due to its high sugar content. For some reason her mums dislike of the cereal appeared to make it taste slightly better. A bit like when ice-cream tastes better in the tub than in a bowl or cone.

"Who do you like?" Rose responded eagerly. She always perked up when the conversation turned to books. A trait she had inherited from her mum.

"Umm…well I guess I like Phillip Pullman. I read Northern Lights about a year ago and I then went on to read the other two within that week. I also love dystopias, though the library I had near me lacked on good books sadly," Clara said looking up as she pondered over her favourite books.

"That's so weird, I love Northern Lights. My mum read it when she was about fourteen; one of her primary school friends had recommended it to her. Despite her being a bit old for the book she adored it and virtually made me read it. Thankfully I enjoyed it thoroughly," she said smiling sheepishly, "I love muggle books. My mum makes sure that I read a wide scale of books, muggle and wizard ones."

"I haven't read any wizarding books yet. Are they any good?" Clara asked as she poured herself more tea, she was rather patriotic.

"Sorry! Do you mind if I just take that? Sorry we've run out of tea here!" Eliza said sweetly as she came behind Clara.

"No, of course!" She said smiling.

"Yeah they are, I will tell you some titles later."

The people around Clara and Rose had finished there conversations and were now looking around the room as if they were in search of something.

"What are you looking for?" Clara said confused as to what was going on.

"Well, we get our timetables this morning, and McGonagall should have already handed them put," Molly said. Shortly after the teachers came round with timetables in hand. Naturally the youngest got theirs first.

"Okay, Potter, Weasley, Weasley and you must be Clara Lake," Professor Longbottom said as he rifled through his pile of sheets, then handed them out to the children, before he then walked further down the table and handed the timetables out to the rest of their housemates.

"What've you got?" James said as he swivelled round to face his brother who proceeded to groan loudly. Albus handed the timetable over to his brother.

"Ha ha, yours is awful. Potions, care of magical creatures, astronomy and charms all on the same day. Have fun!" James said laughing. His smile was wiped of his face however when he received his timetable moments later from Flitwick.

"Not so funny now then!" Albus joked, James rolled his eyes.

"Right anyone coming? We've got DADA first so we need to hurry up," Albus said as he got up to leave.

"Sure, one sec…"Clara said as she lept up and drank the last dregs of her tea.

"See you in ten, I just want to finish this toast," Rose said as they left the table. They walked out of the hall and chatted as they climbed the steps on the way to the common room to grab their bags, then to go the DADA classroom.

"So this is nice isn't it" Clara said smiling as the climbed they climbed the stairs out of the Great Hall.

"Yeah, the outside is nice as well. I went out early this morning," He said chuckling slightly.

"Why did you go out early?" she asked very confused, but giggling.

"Oh well, it's fun to go out early sometimes in the mornings. It's a good place to think you know."

"Oh right," She said rather sceptically.

They were rather quiet until they got up to the common room, which wasn't really loud or anything it was still early morning and most were at breakfast anyway.

"I'm going to grab my things. So shall we meet back here in five?" He said as he climbed the stairs to his dorm.

"That's fine," she said as she walked up also and opened the door to her dorm room. The room was empty, obviously, it had a peculiar sort of stillness to it. She had already packed before she had left, so all she needed to do was grab her books and leave. She picked up her books and bag, and then wondered over to the mirror to check her hair. Parted in the side, two plaits meeting at the back of her head.

A few minutes later she returned to the common room, where Albus waited, preoccupied in his thoughts.

"Hello! Shall we go or shall we wait for the others?" Clara asked as she wafted her hands in front of his face, so he would stop staring into space.

"Oh yeah! Sorry! Umm…yeah we should probably wait for them yeah. They came up a few moments before you came down," he said as he slowly snapped out of it and sat down on the sofa opposite the fireplace. Clara followed and sighed very loudly as she slumped onto the sofa as well.

"Ugh!" She exclaimed to nothing in particular.

"My sentiments exactly," Albus replied.

"Albus, I have a question," Clara asked moments later, suddenly slightly more engaged into the atmosphere than before.

"It's Al by the way but go on," Al said, he hated the name Albus, but he had to introduce himself as that as Al was a slightly odd name. His second name wasn't really much better; Severus. He got that they were the names of very courageous people that meant a lot to his dad and mum, but his sister was Lily Luna, which was much better in his opinion. At least James was a normal name, and Sirius in his opinion was actually a cool name.

"Well I was wondering…" Clara started before Louis rushed in flowed by Rose, Poppy, Chris, Annabel (who during breakfast had told everyone it was Anna) Eliza, Lewis and John the quietist member of their group. Basically all of Dorm Rooms A, boys and girls alike. There were B dorm rooms but it appeared that they were a bit more punctual when it came to lessons.

Clara glanced at her watch, and her smile dropped. She quickly told them that they needed to go now, as the lesson was either just starting or about to start. They then all rushed through the portrait hole and clambered down the stairs, not really knowing the way. Victoire had given them a rough idea of where classes were but no one was really sure. They sprinted down the corridors outside the courtyard until they eventually, with no minutes to spare, found the classroom. They were having their lesson with the Hufflepuffs. They ran into the room to find that despite the lesson not starting yet, Professor Kirk was still standing by the desk surveying the class. His first class at Hogwarts, and theirs too, which was nice. He was a stern looking man, but had a lean face and black ruffled hair, which resembled Harry Potters actually, a thought that was running through Al's head as he took his place next to Louis.

Kirk was a young man, who had trained as an Auror, but had sustained an injury within his last year in training which meant that he couldn't continue doing missions, so he decided that rather than do all the planning in an office, he would return to the lesson he had enjoyed the most at school, Defence Against The Dark Arts. He was a strong man with a great talent for non-verbal spells that had come in handy when he was training, but he did prefer teaching the simple stuff so that was what he did first.

After everyone had settled in their seats he walked behind his desk, and turned to the chalkboard that was adjacent to it, and wrote his name on it.

"Okay. Hello class, as you know I am Professor Kirk, Sir or Professor to you. This is my first lesson teaching so I am nervous, as are you. I am going to try and not be boring, but there are a few simple things we need to do firstly," Kirk started as he walked around his desk, chuckling nervously, when he mentioned, that he was nervous. He then went on to talk about what they were going to cover that year. What he would expect from them, like homework etc.

The first lesson was basically establishing his methods and what was going to happen; they would later find out that the same would go for almost all their first lessons.

"So that was rather boring wasn't it? He seems nice enough though?" Rose said as they left the classroom and headed for the green houses for Herbology.

"I see what you mean, but James said most of our first lessons are boring. Apparently you don't do anything practical within the first week or month," Al said with a hint of annoyance in the matter, he wasn't one for boring lessons.

"Well we've got Herbology next and Professor Longbottoms nice so that should be fine," Rose said as they dropped their bags and entered the warm Green house. Longbottom was already stood at the other end of the room, waiting for the last people to enter so he could start promptly. A few children trickled in, but he deemed it time to start so he stepped forward and spoke,

"Okay, so you know who I am. Come on you two at the back, yes you step forward please. You will hear the same things throughout this week and I'm sorry for that but that's just how it is I'm afraid…" Longbottom spoke.

The day rambled on and the once very bright and cheerful faces fell to glum half dead ones. They were very excited by the time lunch came, as that meant only one more lesson to go. In fairness they hadn't got any homework so it looked as though they would have a nice free evening but they had transfiguration which was renowned for lots of homework, but they were having a new teacher who looked very nice and pleasant, maybe things would change? The dreary Monday continued, and the weather worsened as did the moods. The sky wasn't bright and sunny as it had been that morning, it was now overcast and the onset of rain was present.

Luckily Transfiguration went rather fast, possibly the fact that no one wanted to be there, even Professor Clearwater was dreading it slightly, but that was mainly nerves, which she didn't like to get the better of her. They tried honestly to be attentive but it didn't really work and even the professor was sick by the end and couldn't wait to get on with doing the spells and things.

They all rushed out of the classroom when they were dismissed, a few minutes before they should have been. They all clambered up the stairs to go and do various activities.

"I'm going for a walk, anyone want to come?" Al said hopefully as he swung himself onto a chair in the common room. There were many shaking heads, but Clara nodded as she didn't mind if it rained, she loved the rain, and she did need some space and time to think.

"Sure, I'll get changed. I'll be down in five, that okay?" she said as she rushed up the steps. He nodded and returned to his dorm to do the same. She emerged from her room three minutes later in jeans, a hoodie and converse, her natural attire. Al was already waiting when she came down the stairs.

"Come on lets go, no one else want to come?" He said as he turned back to his family and friends who were exhausted, and sprawled across the couches. He was once again met with many shakes of heads. Clara and Al then turned back and walked out of the portrait hall into the busy stairway, which was loud and full of people. They fought their way through the crowds and then got to the entrance hall where they went straight on, into the school grounds. They put their hands in their pockets and just walked. They needed the free air and time. They walked in silence for a while until they stopped when they reached a nice bench, with a good scenic view.

"So can I ask you a question? I don't mind if you don't want to answer it," Clara asked nervously, she didn't have a clue why she was nervous she was just curious as to how he would react to the question.

"Umm…yeah sure, what is it?" he answered a bit confused.

"Well, I was wondering what your parents did? As you all appeared shocked when I didn't know them, and all Louis said was that they were famous. As I said you don't have to answer," Clara asked quickly.

"Well… Okay. Umm… It's hard to explain actually, it's a very long story. But in short my dad when he was one and a half survived the killing curse from a very evil and dark wizard, who killed my grandparents that same night. They thought that the evil wizard was defeated once and for all that night, but sadly this wasn't the case. Throughout all his school life, at the end of each actually he would try and kill him again. Dad tried to kill him, and with the help of his best friends, Rose's parents, the dark wizard was defeated in the battle of Hogwarts. And as the wizard was so famous, naturally so was my dad, air go so am I," He said slowly making sure that what he was saying was making enough sense for Clara to understand.

"What about Louis, Fred and Molly?" she asked after saying sorry multiple times, she felt responsible as she'd brought it up.

"Well they're all my cousins, as you know. My mum had six brothers, all of whom were involved in the war. Ron, Rose's dad, was one. Louis dad, Bill another. Molly's dad, Percy and Fred's dad George," he said miming with his hands as he explained, "I've talked about my family, so what about yours?"

"Well I have a sister, Katie, who is a year younger than me. My mum as I said didn't go here and was a muggle. And well my dad passed away when I was four. I don't really remember him so it isn't that sad. I grew up with my mum and sister and we cope. I don't like to talk about it though," she said slowly stuttering over the bit about her dad, as although she hadn't really known him, it was still sad and depressing to talk and think about.

"Sorry, I didn't know," Albus said sadly as he patted Clara's back, not in an awkward or creepy way, an empathetic one.

"No, it's fine. You would've found out anyway. Just don't tell everyone. People always say and go on and on about how hard it must be and telling me how sad I should feel. But honestly I didn't know him and I just grew up without him. To me he's just a faceless face that I wish I could have. It doesn't make sense I know," Clara said, she wasn't the crying sort but this matter sometimes did bring tears. The small droplets rolled down her wet cheeks, she wiped them off, and shook her head.

"Sorry, for bringing it up," Al said once again with honesty. They sat in silence for a long while after this. They only talked again after the drizzle started.

"Do you want to go in?" Al asked Clara shook her head; fortunately AL had the same feelings. They just sat there on the bench letting the rain fall onto them, deep in thought.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:Thank you so much one again! I hope this is okay, Thanks for reading. Sorry its late, this is a bit longer though:)**

The next morning was rather more cheery than the day before. There were a few more smiles at breakfast than the previous evening. Hopefully the day would bring more practical lessons; then again it was still their first week, and the introductory lessons would probably continue, but there was hope.

"What have you lot got today then?" Louis asked as he reached for some toast; he had posed his question to his elder family members. Victoire proceeded to groan as she took another bite out of her toast. Domonique did the same, for they were both doing their exams at the end of the year. Domonique had her OWLs and Victoire had her NEWTs, and it was her last year as well.

"What have you got, then? Come on, how bad?" Molly asked heavily, sighing slightly. Victoire rolled her eyes before beginning on a rant about the homework she had already received despite it only being the second day back, and how persistent and strict the teachers were being. Once she had finished everyone nodded in agreement of her grumbles.

"Geez! I can't wait for the NEWTs party bus to start next year! Sounds like great fun!" Dominique said sarcastically, just as the post arrived. It was Clara's first time witnessing the rush of many owls, swooping down and dropping letters on expectant teenagers. She looked up in awe as a few owls dropped down onto their end of the table. One landed on Al, one on Victoire, one on Dominique, one on Molly and one on Rose.

Victoire's letter was from her long-distance boyfriend Teddy. They had been dating for the past three years, but he had left at the end of the previous year; so now their relationship would have to be upheld by letters, rather than actual interactions. He had gone to work with Harry, Al and James' father. Teddy was basically Ginny and Harry's third son, despite Harry only being his godfather. He had taken both of his parents talents for Defence Against The Dark Arts, and so after he'd left school he was following in their footsteps, and would be training to become an Auror, under the leadership of Harry himself.

The letter in question was filled with cutsie, I miss you stuff, that when Dominque leaned over she rolled her eyes,

"Seriously? You're dating this guy?" Domonique exclaimed.

 _Dear Vic_

 _I miss you loads at the moment but over here with Harry its going really well. But enough of it here, what's your timetable this year like? Last year mine was awful, so I hope yours isn't too bad (I would insert an empathetic face, but I can't draw_ _)Harry is doing a DADA lesson at Hogwarts soon so I will be coming up as well (He said I could come with him to see you as well), as it's the week before the first Quidditch Match, so I should be able to see you then. I am defiantly_ _going to come up for the Hogwarts weekends when I can. I only saw you two days ago but it feels like ages. I really do hope that I get to see you soon. I hope the others are treating you well, and give some luck to Al, Rose and Louis. I hope they are settling in well. Make sure James doesn't muck around with Al too much though. I miss you so much, and good luck._

 _See You Soon_

 _Love_

 _Teddy_

Victoire was smiling sheepishly to herself. Louis knew that the letter was obviously from Teddy, not his parents. Dominique had received the letter from their parents, she read it and then handed it over to Louis, who skim read it and then dropped it back on the table.

"Ugh, I leave one thing on the floor in my room before I leave and I still get basically murdered!" Louis said as he crunched into his toast, as if he was trying to kill it. The rest of them at the table laughed gleefully as they continued to read their letters or post. Rose was reading her daily Prophet, as she had already finished reading her parents letter.

 _Dear Rose,_

 _We are so proud that you made Gryffindor, and have already made a new friend who likes reading_ _(_ _your mum laughed as she wrote that) Ron stop it! Sorry Rose, Ron won't let me write_. _I hope that you are on top of your work already and are encouraging your friends to do the same. We are so pleased that you enjoy it, and we sincerely hope that you are just as we were whilst we were there. You will meet so many new people and have so many new adventures, hopefully not as dark as ours were, but these next seven years will be amazing all the same, so work hard and try and enjoy it as much as you can._

 _Also please will you remind Professor_ _Longbottom that I need to give him some books when he wishes, he left them the last time he was here. Hugo misses you a lot, so does Lily. They have been wild since you lot left and it's only been two days! They are so excited to come next year, you will have to tell them what it's like in your letter or when you next see them. Please also tell me what your timetable is like, I am eager to know. Who are the new teachers?_

 _Hi, It's me, dad._ _Your mum finally let me have the quill. I honestly hope you have the best time at Hogwarts, but try not to work yourself too hard in first-year; you have got all of that to come. Just try and have the most fun you can, you need to remind the others as well, James certainly doesn't need reminding though! I am so happy that you made Gryffindor, we are really proud._

 _Great Job big sis! See you soon_

 _Lots of Love_

 _Mum_ , _Dad and Hugo_

Rose had a huge smile across her face when she was reading it, she loved her family dearly, her brother Hugo especially. They weren't the sort of siblings that fought a lot, they just seemed to get along together really well. She had returned to her paper once she was done, and was reading an article about one of Luna Scamander's new discoveries.

Al had received his family's letter; as much as his parents loved James they did doubt him sometimes. The letter was pretty much a similar format to Rose's. Talking about Lily and Hugo, saying that they were proud Al was in Gryffindor and that he shouldn't work himself too hard. It also told James not to be too irritating towards his brother and to look out for him.

"Dad's work load is piling up, and mum says you're having your broom confiscated at home, when we get back if you irritate me. Also their going to use the floo network to chat later this evening. If you cared," Al said not looking up, as he then handed over the letter to a slightly irritated James. He groaned as he read it, Al hadn't obviously told him all the punishments he would receive when he returned home if they got a bad word from Al. Most people would expect the younger sibling to obviously just tell lies, but Al wasn't like that; he was honest and trustworthy. He wouldn't tell his parents anything unless he had to. He was a strong person and would just deal with it.

Molly's letter had only been short and had just asked how things were and about Professor Clearwater, how she was doing etc.. Nevertheless they would all have to spend at least some of the evening replying to their parents, or boyfriends in Victoire's case. They ate the rest of their breakfast quietly, Clara feeling a little isolated that she wasn't really one of them. All her other dorm mates had also got letters, but she just had to sit there awkwardly and just listen to what they were saying. They weren't excluding her or anything, she just wasn't in their family, or massive friends with her other dorm members; Eliza and Poppy had become close friends instantly, bonding over something the previous evening so now Clara was alone. She had decided that she was going to write to her mum and Katie anyway that evening so she could explain about Owls and to attach her reply etc. The wizard that had come to her when she had got her letter had briefly covered it.

She got a bit bored and decided it was better if she just got ready for Potions, she finished her cereal and bid her farewells before she stepped out of the table and walked back to the common room. Louis ran after her moments later,

"Hey! Wait up please, god I'm not that fast! Clara!" He shouted as he ran up the steps after her; before she realised he was there, she giggled slightly as he eventually caught up.

"Hi," She said, just as she realised that she'd never actually had a proper conversation with him yet, apart from the Wizarding thing on the train.

"We haven't formally spoken yet have we?" Louis said smiling as they climbed the steps.

"No I believe not!" She said chuckling nervously. He also looked quite awkward in the situation; he wasn't very good at making conversation, like Molly was. His sisters did keep encouraging it though. He felt at a sort of disadvantage being a lot younger than them for some reason, they had already excelled and he had only just got there. In fairness his parents had insisted that they shouldn't be home-schooled like they had done as children, but that they should all go to the local primary school in Cornwall where they lived . He had done well there, in the exams he'd done at the end of each year but still he felt like their shadow, not his own person sometimes. Luckily he was the sort of person that everyone liked as well, so he had many muggle friends that he had tried to keep in touch with; but they all connected with a muggle object called phones that only his parents, aunts and uncles had. Staying in touch with those children would require a lot of effort sadly.

"Sorry, just hadn't got round to it yet I guess. I'm not very good at you know talking and that. You will have noticed that's more Molly's area," He said joking a little bit at the end.

"Its fine," She said smiling, "Nice to be here isn't it?" She said casually before adding, "Victoire and Dominique are your sisters, right?"

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" He replied, hands in pockets as they almost reached the portrait hole.

"The hair I think," She said laughing as she said the password and they were allowed in. They separated and went up the stairs to their dorms to grab their things. Returning moments later to walk down to the dungeons.

The Weasleys and the Potters were all dreading the next lesson. From what they'd heard from their parents and their siblings, they were going to get doted on by the professor, Slughorn. He was known to be nice, but favoured the famous heavily and there was no one more famous in the wizarding world than Harry Potter. So naturally those related to him and their children were especially favoured. Due to this Al was the last of the lot to leave the hall with Molly, who was just taking a while.

"Come on Al! You actually need to come! Come one!" Molly encouraged as she left the hall calling him after her.

He begrudgingly left as the food vanished off the table. He took a very slow amble over to Molly who tutted as he arrived. Finally they left the hall, and he reluctantly headed for the dreaded Potions room.

The lesson, much to his relief wasn't a practical, so at least the Professor couldn't go on about these talents that he had received from his parents. The Professor nevertheless had spent half an hour going on about how honoured he was to be teaching the Weasleys and the Potter boy that year and couldn't simply wait for him to showcase his brewing talents. Al understandably had put that lesson in his pile of things he really didn't time for, in his head. This amused him greatly. He was very pleased to leave the lesson and then to go to the next lessons.

The day on a whole was slightly better than the previous one. At least they weren't exhausted by the end of the day. They had managed to see some animals in Care Of Magical Creatures, thanks to Hagrid just being amazing. Charms they learnt their first spell as well; the levitation charm.

This charm was actually rather special to Rose's parents. Her mum correcting her father when saying it in one of their first lessons, it was an anecdote they often had brought up, and it also had saved her mum from a troll that same year. So naturally she laughed when the small Professor introduced the spell. Everyone else gave her odd looks.

They had one more lesson to go that evening, Astronomy which couldn't have been too bad. They got to work with letter writing and their first home work pieces. Clara sat by the fire on a big armchair, and started to write her letter to her family. The rain was still lashing down on the windows. And finally the cold air had caught up with the castle. It wasn't warm anymore so the fire was roaring.

"What you writing?" Rose asked, who was sitting on the sofa next to her, she was writing her Potions homework.

"Letter to mum, and sis," She said not really looking up, but holding up the letter to show her, but she was immersed in her writings. Rose smiled, as she continued to write. Al was also writing a letter to his family, without any input from James, obviously. His parents were supposed to Floo us, in about an hour. The first-years weren't going to be getting much sleep that night, so they could stay late before they had to go up to the tower for 11.

Ginny was really happy when she Flooed, she went on about how nice it was that he was settling in fast. Harry appeared too, eating some ice-cream after a long and tedious day at work. They had both asked whether Al had made any new friends; it was then that he explained about the train journey, and said he went for a walk with Clara yesterday evening. Ginny got very excited to meet her, but she had gone with Rose to the library at that time, so he said he'd introduce her another time.

After the Floo, the first years had their Astronomy lesson, which went rather well. They all loved their new professor, Professor Pentable. She was fair haired, average height and quite young for a Hogwarts professor. They all thought that she must be good, as she was employed so young. The lesson passed quickly despite their overall drowsy and tiredness, but they were upbeat and staring in to the blackness in search of the planets. She had set them a small amount of homework, but it was a creative one, so they weren't too displeased.

The second day had passed quickly, without much stress or excitement for that matter. The first-years were finally in their stride by the third day, as if they'd been there for years. The next few days passed with ease, and before they had even realised, the weekend had arrived. They hadn't gained too much homework, much to their joy. The older teens had gained rather a lot though. Victoire and Dominique were sitting on the floor surrounded by mountains of textbooks early on Saturday.

"What you up to Vic?" Al asked as he sat on the floor, back leaning against the sofa. He was rather sick of his History of Magic Essay, he had completed only one of the four rolls of parchment that was required, and was already sick of it.

"Charms, essays," Victoire said holding up her rolls of parchment, before adding, "Essays, emphasis on the 'S'. I have multiple essays. This really sucks; how on earth did Teddy do this?" She expressed before, she got up and said, "God, I've had enough of this. Right, I'm going to go see Zara." She left immediately on her way to the Hufflepuff common room, where one of her best friends, Zara Cooper, was.

"Dom, I'm going to Matt's, you coming," A boy who few of them knew the name of, came up and asked Dominique, who was still lying on the floor. Al looked up to the dark haired boy with blue eyes, he hadn't ever seen him, but wasn't that invested in the situation so returned back to his essay, which he'd only written one more sentence to during the previous thirty minutes.

"No sorry, John, I'm going to finish my transfig essay. You need to finish it too you know?" Dominique said before the boy called John walked away, before saying 'Okay then'. Dominique obviously had said it reluctantly as she took a few deep sighs before returning to the essay.

Everyone one who had been listening just returned to their homework. Clara was lying opposite Al, doing her History of Magic essay as well. She had progressed rather a lot more than Al had. Rose however had already finished it, and Louis had done as much as Al. Al had been staring still at the parchment for a good ten minutes, before he let the parchment roll up, and he closed his History of Magic book.

"I'm going to go to the library. Anyone coming?" Al asked as he lept up suddenly, but grabbing his things, and cramming them into his bag.

"Sure we'll come, I really need to find this book actually," Rose said eying Clara as she nodded. They lept up and also shoved their things into their bags and joined him.

They entered the library, and went to sit down at the table with the least amount of people at it. They found one with only one boy on it. They all recognised him immediately, but Al was the only one who actually knew him.

"Hi, Scorpius," Al said as he swung his chair out of the table and sat down next to him.

"Hi Al. Hi Rose. Sorry I haven't actually ever spoken to you. You know that your dad kind of intensely dislikes, to put it nicely, my dad. Sorry I haven't met you before, who are you?" Scorpius said, he was one of the kindest boys that Clara had ever met. He was being very polite to all of them.

"Clara Lake, nice to meet you," Clara said as she put her hand out across the table, "How do you know Al?"

"Our parents, though hating each other through school, are now friends. We met about five years ago, and we became friends," Al said, turning to Scorpius for assurance as he said how long they'd known each other. Clara nodded and then started on her work, again, as did everyone else. They were all doing their History of Magic (HOM) essay, apart from Rose who had finished hers, and was working on her Charms homework instead. About an hour later, Clara and Rose finished their homework. Clara was about to grab her stuff to then leave but Rose cut in,

"Clara actually, do you want me to recommend and show you some of those books I mentioned?" Rose said as she finished packing up her things.

"Sure, where?" Clara asked, as she got up.

"Well there are a few non-fiction books I'm fairly certain you'll adore, but there are a few fiction books also. The first ones are over there," Rose said as she motioned over to the left, and set off walking there. She showed her many books; the non-fiction ones intrigued her the most. Rose had been talking to her earlier about wand-lore, and she had been very interested in that, so Rose had recommended, a book explaining it in simple terms, along with many other books on wizarding-lore, that really excited Clara. Next Rose went on about fiction books in the wizarding world, going on, and on about an author called Emma Treyton, who wrote action books about a witch called Clarissa. Rose gave her a few of her titles, and then showed her, Catherine Moore, Elizabeth Webb, Theo Doherty and Tristan Hall. When they returned back to the table, thirty minutes later, Clara had acquired over ten books.

"I didn't know you were going to read yourself to death Clara!" Al joked as Clara unloaded some of her books into his arms. Al gave some to Scorpius as well, after getting scowled at by Madame Reid. They slowly made their way up to the Gryffindor Common wherein they made a system of transporting the books between the four of them up to Clara's dorm. After that they made their way back to the library, where they gathered up their stuff and Scorpius left to go back to his common room before dinner. The others ambled back to the Gryffindor Tower.

When they entered they found James and Fred trying to give one of their famous puking sweets to an unsuspecting first year. Al quickly ran up to them when he saw what they were about to do,

"No, don't you even dare. Sorry Alex, my brother and cousin were trying to prank you. Al said as he lead the exceptionally small girl away, making a face at James. James rolled his eyes and went back up to his dorm, Fred trailing behind annoyed.

"What was that all about?" Clara asked as Al wondered over.

"They were trying to give a puking pastille to Alex, I stopped them," Al said as if it was an everyday thing, the boys pranking other people. He flumped down and flipped his head back in exhaustion. It had been a nice but exhausting week. As he flipped his head back, he realised that there was a new notice on the notice board. He quickly swung his head round and back up. He got up and looked at the notice, which to his surprise was addressed to his year.

"We've got our first flying lesson on Tuesday before lunch," He said as he handed the note over to Clara, who read it then passed it onto Rose. She sighed, then handed it back.

"At least we miss Magical Creatures," Clara said.

"Hey! I liked it; we had Hagrid, come on. He was trying really hard, and he was being so nice," Al protested.

"Sorry, come on we should go to dinner now," Clara said as she got up and started to walk out of the portrait hole, the others followed her out. Dinner was a pleasant affair, Victoire once again complained about her workload. Dominique groaned louder and louder as Victoire went on and on. Molly was sat at another end of the table talking to her friends, Amy Cartwright, Kathleen Watts, Nicola and Zoë Cole. She had spent the whole day with them in the library.

Clara was sitting opposite Eliza and Poppy, and next to Rose who was sitting by Al and Louis; the rest of their family were sitting from there onwards.

"So what did you do today?" Eliza asked as she tucked into her fish pie. She had heaped her plate with many different meals, but had started off with one of her favourites from home. Her mum used to cook it for her and her sister Lucy when she was home, it felt like she was back there sitting in her seat, her plate on top of her countries of the world map, in the winter, warmed by her AGA. It made her feel very nostalgic sitting in another world to her small kitchen at home.

"Homework and library, you?" Rose said as she ate her stew

"Same, shame we didn't bump into you," Eliza said, she was a very sweet and kind girl, so was Poppy. A relatively short blonde girl, she made up for her shortness with her unbelievable excitableness. She was forever jumping about everywhere, but she was incredibly nice and sweet, just like Eliza! It was really sweet that they had both quickly become best friends.

"Did you hear that we've got a flying lesson on Tuesday?" Rose asked.

"Yeah we saw the notice earlier," Poppy stated as she ate her food. They chatted as they finished their food. The hall got darker as the evening closed in. They left the hall at eight and many left for bed. For some reason Clara wasn't tired at all, it had been a tiring day but the tired hadn't 'hit her' yet. She just sat by the fire on the sofa. She had sat in the same place on the sofa all week; she had now deemed it her seat. She just read for hours, she had forgotten her reading glasses, so she had sent a letter to her mum on Wednesday, to ask for them. They had only arrived on that morning; the others were quite shocked when she put them on for doing her homework. It wasn't like she really _needed_ them but her optician and her mum had advised it.

She was reading ' Wand-Lore: The basics' a book Rose had said about, in her seat with her thick PJ's and warm fuzzy jumper, hair tied up, sort of, glasses on, Immersed in the complex art of Wands. It was amazing to her, but to most it would have been so confusing despite it being a book on the basics. There were few people in the common room any more, only a few seventh-years, Victoire and one of her friends included, scribbling away, and Eliza was down as well, finishing her Charms essay off. She had been doing something with Poppy after they'd done some homework, so they hadn't really got round to it. Soon after, Eliza left, leaving Clara alone. There was only one other person left now, who yawned and then retired to his dorm room.

She was now all alone in the common room, there was no sound. Everyone was silent, she smiled and stretched. She still wasn't tired. She just sat there contemplating her first week at the school, what had gone on etc. She thought about all the new people she'd met, the nice, kind ones especially.

Just a week ago she was sitting in her room, waiting excitedly to come, and now she was here. It was more than she had imagined but a little less exciting and action packed. Maybe that was a good thing though? Clara continued to think over everything, as the sky boomed with thunder and rain began to hurl itself on the window panes. She drifted slowly off to sleep, having not moved from her seat. There was nothing left of the fire anymore, just the glowing embers, the embers that faded and blurred as her eyes softly closed.


	4. Chapter 4

"Clara! Clara! Wake up! Come on, Clara!" Rose said shoving the sleeping girl. Clara's eyes slowly opened, her vision was blurred, as they crept open.

"No, I don't want to tap-dance!" Clara murmured sleepily, before she shoved Rose off her, she batted her away half-asleep.

"Clara! Come, on wake up!" Rose said again as she shoved her again, Clara batted her away before she realised what was going on, and that she'd left the wonderful world of dreams, and back to the rather boring reality.

"Sorry. Okay, right I'm awake now. Sorry Rose," Clara said as she suddenly sat bolt upright and rubbed her eyes, after removing her glasses, and put them on her head, " Wait, what's the time?" she said before realising that she wasn't in her four-poster bed but on a sofa " Wait actually, where am I?"

"It's only eight, but I got up early anyway. I'm stuck in the school routine I suppose. You were reading quite late, I didn't see you come back to the dorm room last night; and I found you here when I came down moments ago, so you just fell asleep whilst reading. Your books on the table over there, by the way. Did you like it, the book I mean?" Rose said lively, a little too lively for a cold Sunday morning.

"You going down to breakfast then?" Clara asked as she slowly stood up and stretched.

"Yeah; you coming?" Rose said as she went over to the edge of the sofa, moving away from Clara. There wasn't anyone else in the common room at that hour.

"I really can't be bothered to change, I'll just grab some shoes from upstairs, give me a sec," Clara said as she rushed up the stairs to her room. She came down moments later in black converse trainers, but still wearing her thick blue jumper and soft green pyjamas covered in trees.

"Come on, let's go," Rose said as they made their way to the portrait hole, and out into the silent school. The corridors were eerily quiet, so different from the atmosphere that was there during the week. Most that early would be asleep, slowly waking up to a cold September Sunday morning. The sad realisation that it was a cold September Sunday morning, hitting him soon after they awoke. They got down to the hall where in there was one teacher, the deputy Professor Longbottom, and Scorpius sitting alone deep in thought and about a dozen seven-years, sitting at the Ravenclaw. They walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down grabbing some breakfast before Rose got up and walked over to Scorpius, Clara followed a little confused,

"Do you want to come and sit with us, as you're alone?" Rose asked as she stood in front of the sleek haired blonde boy, sitting awkwardly alone.

"Are you sure that it's okay?" Scorpius said politely. Rose nodded before saying,

"No of course, come on. You look really lonely, we won't bite," she said giggling as they walked back over to her table. They sat down and continued to eat breakfast. They chatted about school and things; it appeared that family would be a neglected subject. Rose's father would have flipped if he had found out that she and Clara had eaten breakfast with him that morning. He was one of those people, thankfully that you could easily talk to. It became apparent that they would be friends with him; he was such a genuinely honest and nice person.

About twenty minutes after they'd came in Al, Louis, Eliza and Poppy entered the dining hall. Thankfully none of them looked confused or amazed by the fact that Scorpius was sitting with the two girls. They all just sat down and dug in, the noise levels rising as more people came in with weary and tired faces on I must admit.

"Morning," Al said with a happy ring to it as he swung his legs in and sat down next to Scorpius, who smiled at him nicely.

"Morning," Rose replied to her cousin.

"Why were you down so early? Also why are you in your PJ's?" Louis asked, directing the last to Clara. It was a question that they all wanted to hear the answer to.

"I fell asleep in the common room. Rose woke up early anyway and woke me up," Clara stated. The others ahh'd casually as they continued to eat. By this point however Clara, Rose and Scorpius were done and were ready to leave.

"I'm going to go as I need to finish some homework off," Clara lied, really she just wanted to get changed out of her pyjamas, she was beginning to get some very weird looks, also she wanted some fresh air; it had been a while since she'd gone for a walk on the grounds. She got up and left; the others remained.

There was a small breeze or draft going through the school; it was a soft summery breeze, rather different from the storm the previous night. Clara rushed up the stairs, not caring for the laughs and looks that she was met with on her way up. She built up the insults she wanted to shout at them in her head as she finally got up to the Gryffindor tower. The common room wasn't that full, most were either asleep or at breakfast, but there were the studious few who were already immersed in their homework. Victoire and a few of her friends were down also, she smiled at Clara sweetly as Clara climbed the stairs to her common room.

"Morning Clara," Anna said cheerily from the mirror, as she sorted her hair out," Are the others a breakfast?"

"Yeah, I came back early. I really need to change," Clara said as she wondered over to her bed and peered inside her trunk. She leafed through its contents, before she pulled out a top, jeans and a hoodie. She then wandered off into the bathroom, to get ready. Anna finished her hair and walked over to the bathroom door.

"Clara, I'm going down, see you later," She said before she exited the room and walked down to the Great Hall. Clara quickly got dressed, and walked over to the mirror. She surveyed the damage in her hair, there was a lot let's just say. She firstly took it out of its failing pony tail; it immediately puffed up. She sighed heavily before she grabbed her hair brush and attempted to brush it. After about five minutes she got it to a reasonably presentable standard, with two front pieces clipped back. She removed her glasses, and put them on her bedside table. She grabbed her trainers and took her coat off the hook on the door and left the dorm. She slowly put her coat on as she descended down the stairs, into the common room. She waved at Victoire again as she left, Victoire waved back sighing a little, slightly jealous that Clara was going out but she had to stay and finish her work. She sighed again to herself and returned to her work.

Clara put her hands in her coat and continued to walk down the stairs. She drifted off into her mind a little as she reached down to the corridors which lead to Hagrid's hut. She was walking absentmindedly outside, her mind was elsewhere. She hadn't realised where she was going until she bumped into someone else, walking into the castle, just as absent as she was.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going," Clara said apologetically as she bent down to pick up the books and sheets of the person she'd knocked into. It was none other than the deputy head, head of Gryffindor and her Herbology professor.

"Sorry Clara, I was a bit away from it all. Where are you going?" The professor said as he picked up the things Clara handed him.

"Out, I got up early. What are you doing, It isn't a school day?" Clara asked as she finished handing over his things.

"I just nipped down to Hagrid's actually, and Book errands. Have a nice day Clara," The professor smiled to her before turning to walk back into the castle," Actually Clara, your friends with Rose aren't you?"

"Yeah, Why?" She asked.

"Umm, could you tell her to tell her mum I sorted the books out," He asked, Clara nodded before they both turned back and went off in opposite directions. Clara walked out into the cool, crisp morning air. She sighed at nothing in particular and walked on passed the point where Rose's mum had punched Scorpius's dad over twenty years previous. She walked on to her left toward the Whomping willow, though she wasn't very aware about the particularly dangerous tree. No one had mentioned it to her . The tree's leaves were beginning to brown, soon the tree would get fed up, one leaf would fall, and the rest would immediately follow.

She walked on round to the spot where you could see the looming castle, in all its splendour. She marvelled at it for a while, not moving, staying silent only for her quiet breathing. The only sounds that were present now were of the small birds tweeting happily in the fairly early morning breeze. She inhaled and exhaled loudly, smiling slightly as she looked up and around in wonder.

She decided it was time to walk on, staying silent. She found the bench she had sat with Al at in the previous week. She sighed once again, as she sat down looking out into the castles grounds. She had sighed slightly at the prospect of returning inside, she was near the door now. She could now see two sixth years, sitting together on the hill next to the bench. The hill was right underneath the boy's dorms in the Gryffindor tower. There was also a few fifth years sitting by the Black Lake. It reminded her of the lake by her house at home, and how she used to go there with her friends before she left.

 _A few months ago_

" _Come on Clara, Come on!" Will called as he rushed down the_ _bank, Clara trailing behind._

" _Geez, I'm coming. Hurry up Georgie!" Clara called, turning to behind her to Georgie who was further away. Georgie yelled something inaudible to Clara._

" _What?" She yelled back as she stopped, turning down to Will who was only a little way further down now. Will shrugged, as he continued to run down the bank. Georgie didn't reply, and just ran down to Clara who remained where she was. As Georgie approached she started running down the bank again._

" _Georgie, Come on Will's already down," Clara shouted as she almost reached the edge of the lake._

" _What did you say 'bout me?" Will said as he waited for her to reach him._

" _Oh nothing, just that you were already down here. She really needs to hurry up," Clara said, as she looked up to the bank where Georgie was just running over._

" _Come on, why did you take so long?" Will said as they started to walk round to their tree. The tree that they had attempted to make into a tree house, they had failed miserably. Now there were a few loose planks stuck in the old Oak Tree. The tree was what they called theirs; they had been going there for years. The three of them had known each other basically all their lives, and when they had been on a picnic when they were much younger, with their parents, they had found the huge, very climbable, I may add, tree. In the trunk of the tree, there was a carving that said,' Will, Georgie and Clara's Tree, Go Away!'. They often would venture there now, that school was nearing its end, and Clara was going away, they were reminiscing their old memories. The other two had flipped when they had found out that Clara wasn't going to the local state school that they were (she had always said she was). This was one of the last times they'd be able to all go together, before the holidays, and then school starting once again._

" _Sorry, I didn't know this was a competition," Georgie said sarcastically panting a bit, Will tutted rolled his eyes and began to climb the tree. The others followed. Will climbed up to one of the biggest branches near the top, Clara under him on the left and Georgie beneath her. They sat chatting to each other amidst the branches, staring out into the deep blue lake. They tried to prolong that afternoon extensively, it was one of the last times that they would be able to do that before they left. Clara to boarding school, and the other two to a new school, where they'd quickly grow up and drift apart._

Present

Clara quickly snapped out of it as the air cooled quite a bit more, she felt naïve dwelling on the past like that, but she missed being there with her best friends, Will and Georgie. She had seen them the day before she left, but hadn't spoken or written since. Sure, she had new friends, but she'd known Will and Georgie for years, like how Al, Rose and Louis had known each other for ever, and although they included her, she didn't know them that well. They were probably doing homework back in the Lake District where they all lived, in the small village of Matterdale, close to Keswick. She missed them a lot she decided, but thought it was silly to dwell too much in the past so she lept up and decided now was a good time to walk back to the common room, and find something a little more productive to do, much to her annoyance really.

She climbed up the steps to the Gryffindor tower, saying the password, then stepping into the common room, which was a lot louder than when she'd left. There were so many people than the previous day. She saw her friends sitting around the sofa again,

"Where have you been?" Rose asked as she looked up at Clara.

"Walk," Clara said as she slumped back down on the sofa," Oh I bumped into Professor Longbottom, he said I needed to tell you to tell your mum that he has sorted some books out or something," she said just as she remembered it.

"Oh yeah, I forgot I was supposed to ask him about that," Rose exclaimed just as she reached over to her pile of parchment, and quickly scribbled a letter to her mum, she excused herself to get her owl, Faramir. Her mother's choice in name, for she hadn't read the books yet, they were on her to be read pile though. She was reading The Hobbit currently. She returned moments later.

"What are you doing now then, I thought you'd done all your homework?" Clara asked, as Rose sat down.

"Oh I have I was just writing a letter to my uncle, and there was something in a book I wanted to check. I had a question for him," Rose said casually as she returned to her writing.

"Who to?" Al said as he perked his head up.

"Charlie, I wanted to ask something about one of the dragons he was working with," Rose replied.

"Ah, Okay! Wait that reminds me I should write to Lily," Al said as he set aside his homework, Rose immediately shook her head.

"Nope, get back here you're finishing your homework first," Rose said as she blocked his path. It would have been weird if they weren't related, but Al was used to her bossing him around occasionally, at least she wasn't attacking him like James.

"Fine," Al sighed as he gave her a cold stair and reluctantly returned to his Charms essay. He finished it soon after, as did Louis. They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting by the fire, until dinner. After that they returned to their spot by the fire and talked once again, joined by Eliza and Poppy this time. They finally went to bed reluctantly at ten.

The next day passed quickly, the first-years were excited to have their flying lesson the next day. They were allowed to miss Potions, much to Al, Rose and Louis' pleasure, although not to Professor Slughorn's however. Madame Blackwood had called them to eat their breakfast, a little earlier, to insure that they would be done by lunch, so they could do Charms that afternoon. The Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws would be having their lesson the next day, so it was only the Gryffindors and Slytherins.

So at quarter to nine those first-years lined up in the courtyard, waiting for Madame Blackwood's arrival. She arrived two minutes later, pulling up her gloves as she walked through the two opposite lines.

"Hello First-years, right okay. Promptly stand beside a broom, there is one for everyone. Then when I tell you, hold out your right, or left hand and shout up, loud and directly," She said, her hard stare fleeting around the courtyard. The children faffed about for three minutes, Madame Blackwood began to get impatient; she blew her whistle, the children immediately straightened out at got to a broom. They all shouted up! Promptly. Few however actually achieved the said task, Al, Louis and Clara among those who had successfully got their broom. Rose looked at Clara with annoyance, Clara just smiled sheepishly. A few moments later however she achieved it, not the way she was supposed to however. She was waked in the face by her broom, everyone laughed as she rubbed her head.

"Thanks guys, for being so supportive," Rose said sarcastically as she finally got her broom in her hand.

"Well we just thought you were doing so well," Al joked; Rose rolled her eyes. The final people were getting their brooms. Madame Blackwood started speaking again anyway.

"Okay, when I blow my whistle you will kick off the ground, hard and hover for a few moments before returning to the ground. No one do any more than that, Potter and Weasleys don't you even dare," Madame Blackwood said, before she blew her whistle moments later. Only a few managed to get off the ground. Scorpius and Al looked like naturals as they floated up on their brooms, effortlessly; they had done it before though. Clara surprised by how easy it was also gently floated up to their level, before touching back down. She was laughing with her surprise. As I said there were only a few others that managed it. Poppy Millan, Chris Wood and Lewis Ebbleton amongst them. Everyone who hadn't achieved it rolled their eyes at the ones that had.

"If you achieved flight come over here," Madame Blackwood called. The ones she said moved over there, leaving the majority of the Gryffindor's and Slytherin's, looking annoyed on the teachers other side. It had worked out that only eight had achieved flight, out of around thirty-six students. Madame Blackwood assisted the ones that hadn't done it, while the others waited chatting about flying and whatnot.

After Madame Blackwood had helped the others, she set them practising flying gently, and she walked back over to Al's group.

"Okay, I presume some or most have you have flown, or played Quidditch even before," most nodded, Lewis, Poppy and Clara shook their heads, Madame Blackwood smiled before adding, "Oh natural talent. Right I want you lot to practise flying up and around. The ones that have played Quidditch before you help the others. I will return when the others can all at least get off the ground." After she had walked away, they all mounted their brooms, and took off, flying up and around the courtyard playfully, all of them laughing as they flew. It was clear that what Madame Blackwood had said about natural talent was true; they all flew with ease and enjoyment. After they had gone around a few times, they decided it could be fun if they grabbed a ball of some kind. Poppy immediately piped up and flew to her bag, grabbing a tennis ball. They all ahh'd in agreement as Poppy threw it to Scorpius. He caught it with ease, and the others spread out playing a variation of the game pass and move. It was clear who was a little better than others, Lewis lacked in throwing skills, he ended up dropping his most of the time, someone, most often Chris, flew in and grabbed the ball, before it fell to the ground. Clara had quite a huge talent for this, catching Poppies sometimes strong throws, in the wrong direction.

"Clara, you're really good, you should try for the House team," Al said, the others agreed, nodding their heads. Clara batted them off, feeling rather awkward; she hated people saying things like that. She'd be so nervous if she ever played for a team, she played a rounder's match at her old school once, it didn't go all that well let's just say.

"No, I suck under pressure, in anything," Clara said surely, before she flew off into another direction. They all sighed, deciding not to follow her, they then restarted their throwing game, before Madame Blackwood called them back down, as it appeared that everyone could now fly.

"Okay, were almost done now, as everyone has managed to lift off the ground. Some progressing more than others. We will continue this next week. Some of you should now think about joining the Quidditch teams. See you next week," Madame Blackwood said, before she dismissed the class to go for lunch.

"Come on, stop being so, I don't know negative. If you tried, I am certain you'd make the team. You know the captain is Charles Hornby, you know the prefect that showed us the common room, on our first day. He will definitely give you a place; you are so good. James and Fred are both on the team," Al pleaded later that evening.

"I swear first-years never join the team," Clara said looking up at the others as she ate her chicken pie in dinner.

"Well, funny you asked," Rose answered to everyone's rolling eyes,

"Here we go," Louis said before Rose continued.

"So Harry, Al's dad was the first in a century to play in first year," Al shied a little as she said this; he was like his father when it came to modesty, "He played Seeker, which on its own is really hard, but he did and he won almost all his matches. Gryffindor have won the House Cup almost every year since he was here. He wasn't allowed to compete two years though. But after he left, they decided to make it more common for first-years to play for the house teams. Not every time there is a first-year as talent is an issue, but sometimes they do make the teams. If you try out for the team, you have a good chance of being in if you are good. Clara you really should try out, I saw you flying, you were really good."

After Rose said this, Clara shook her head, much to her friends' disappointment.

"No, sorry guys. I may try when I'm older, right now I just want to aim on my school work, shouldn't I Rose," Clara said turning to Rose.

"Clara, yeah. School's important but come on. It'd be fun. Even my mum would say Quidditch is fun and shouldn't affect your school stuff, despite how much she complained at Harry. Keeping it all in balance; is more than possible," Rose said trying again to get her to at least try out, "But I do understand if you don't want to. I'm ready to go, anyone coming, really not in the mood for pud," Rose asked moments later. Molly, and Al stood up, and they walked out of the hall. Everyone stayed silent about Quidditch to Clara; for the remainder of dinner, much to her pleasure. She wasn't aware however of the conversation that Al, Molly and Rose were having in the quiet common room.

"I really think she does need to try out," Al said, posing it to Molly, who knew just about everyone in the school, definitely everyone in Gryffindor. She was friendly with the Quidditch captain Charles Hornby.

"I agree," Rose chipped in, "Could you possibly, you know, talk to Charles, to see if he could, I don't know like, talk to Clara or something, to get her to try or join?"

"Yeah sure, like how good she is? Wait what place would she play?" Molly asked.

"I guess either Chaser or Seeker, and yeah she was really good, and that was when were just playing catch," Al said to Molly, Rose nodded along.

"James good?" Molly asked, Al nodded, and James was like a Quidditch prodigy. All the Potters were amazing at Quidditch, both their parents were keen Quidditch players, both could have become professional players; their mum did. She did amazingly as well; now she wrote about Quidditch. Harry could have become a player as well, but he opted for the Auror world. Everyone had been sure that from an early age, James would enter the Quidditch world. Al was very good as well; he flew from an early age; in his back garden with his parents, and siblings. Lily was just as good, taking after her father as a Seeker, but she excelled as a Chaser as well. James and Al were strong Chasers; Fred on the other hand was a good Beater, after his father.

"Okay, I'll talk to Charles when he gets back," Molly said smiling, before she left to get her homework books. A few minutes later, Clara and the others returned. Clara, not wanting the Quidditch argument resume, went up to her dorm room, to go over her homework and play with Moira, her cat. She had run off for a bit the previous week. Clara had just settled herself with her book and Moira, down onto the seat by the window. Before Rose rushed in,

"Molly wants you down in the common room," Rose said before Clara sighed and reluctantly closed her book.

"You haven't gone and grovelled to her as well about Quidditch," Clara said as she got up and walked over to the door. Rose didn't answer; Clara took that as a yes. She walked down the stairs slowly; Rose gave Molly the thumbs up, who was on the other side of the room, standing with Charles Hornby. However when Clara turned round to Rose she pulled a straight face and pulled her hands down.

"Rose, you are aware I did just see you pull your hands down, and pull a straight face," Clara said just before she reached Molly and Charles.

"Right, what is it?" Clara asked rather annoyed, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well, we were wondering if you could just listen to Charles, and join the Quidditch team. Please Clara, at least listen to Charles," Molly said, before she stepped aside and let Charles speak.

"Look Clara, from what I've heard, you are an amazing flyer, and we need amazing flyers if we want to keep the Quidditch cup. We have kept our cup for years, and now we need good new players. I have always been one for trying to get the first-years involved. Please join," Charles tried.

"Sorry, I just don't want that kind of pressure," Clara said awkwardly.

"Fine, I'm not going to force you then, but will you join the reserve team this year, and then play for the team from next year onwards. We lost some good players, at the end of last year, and currently we have me, one seventh-year and Fred and James. I presume James will be captain next year, and I am certain he will be harsh, but will need some good players. Please Clara, all you have to do is come to one training once or twice a fortnight and play if someone can't play, Please?" Charles reasoned, he had put up a good bargain. Clara though over it for a few moments before answering.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:Hello, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while; it was the last week of school so I was busy, then I went away without wifi, But this chapter is longer, and hopefully a bit more exciting. Soon aswell the name of the story will make a little more sense. Please review:)**

"Fine, I'm not going to force you then, but will you join the reserve team this year, and then play for the team from next year onwards? We lost some good players at the end of last year, and currently we have me, two other seventh-years and Fred and James. I presume James will be captain next year, and I am certain he will be harsh, but will need some good players. Please Clara, all you have to do is come to one training once or twice a fortnight and play if someone can't play, Please?" Charles reasoned; he had put up a good bargain. Clara thought over it for a few moments before answering. Everyone around her looked at her expectantly and it made her more nervous and more inclined to say no for some odd reason; she didn't know why. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but her lips closed again; she tried again with luck this time,

"If you promise that it will be no more than once or twice, not a lot of pressure is put on me and that I have to make no promises to actually join the team fully, I'll do it," Clara said as a sigh of relief washed over the others and Charles nodded happily as he clapped his hands together and excused himself for a minute.

"Well done Clara," Molly said.

"I didn't just play Quidditch you know, I only said that I would," Clara mumbled to confused looks, she just shook her head and returned to her dorm where she found a now sleeping Moira. She tutted slightly, as she rubbed Moira's neck softly and looked out onto the Hogwarts grounds, sighing as she saw the path that lead to the Quidditch pitch. She gave a sarcastic chuckle, as she slowly picked her book again and lay it down on the bed, as she gathered her towel and things, and headed to the bathroom.

Things at school started to know pick up, the homework load increasing by the day; not to the pleasure of the children, obviously. The Quidditch try-outs started, and the teams were picked. The Gryffindors team was picked the Tuesday following Clara's agreement to become the reserve.

They had come back from the worst day of the week, bags heavily strung over their bodies, weighed down by the many books they were required to have. The first-years quickly slumped themselves onto the sofas, not at all to the older ones delight, they tutted and murmured something about 'selfishness' and 'stupid first-years'.

"Flitwick was being so annoying today, four rolls of parchment. He's getting worse you know," Al said as he rested his eyes on the biggest sofa.

"You know he was probably just in a bad mood, you know how he gets," Rose said as she got out her homework timetable, that her mother had given her.

"Seriously Rose, we only just got back from work, and now you're doing more work. Rose just have some rest, like just for tonight," Clara pleaded, and Rose shook her head.

"Nope, this is due in in three days, guys you should be doing this as well," Rose said still shaking her head, as she set her bag down on the floor. Clara sighed and then went up to the notice board; Charles had mentioned something about putting up the sheet on Tuesday; the try-outs had been on the previous Saturday.

"Al, come over here, the sheets up," She called, beckoning the boy over. Al looked round and then got up. The sheet read-

 _Gryffindor Quidditch team 2017_

 _Chasers- James Potter_

 _Albus Potter_

 _Charles Hornby_

 _Beaters- Fred Weasley_

 _William Clarke_

 _Keeper- Chris Wood_

 _Seeker- Catherine Wall_

 _Reserve- Clara Lake (Seeker or Chaser)_

 _Please Note that this is final, so don't argue or come complaining to me_. _Also Quidditch practice will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but excluding the matches. Please actually come or you are off the team._

"Well done, Chaser," Clara said as she hugged him.

"Same to you, Chaser or Seeker. So when are you coming to practice; have you spoken to Charles yet?" He asked.

"Err, yeah. I think I'm coming on Fridays and Saturdays, if I can, cause homework you know," Clara said shrugging.

"Yeah I know, we will be keeping up with it you know, as well," He said as they walked back over to the others.

That same week the practices started for all the houses; Scorpius was in his house team as well, so he had lost his evenings as well. A few years ago due to the frequency of Quidditch practices, the school had gained training areas and temporary scoring hoops for each house so that there wasn't an issue with double booking the match pitch anymore. However each house was allowed one day each week playing on the match pitch which was chosen at the start of the year, and couldn't be rescheduled, which also helped with the double booking issue.

The Quidditch practices were also getting gradually more intense, due to the oncoming match of Slytherin vs Gryffindor. Luckily for Clara and for everyone else, no one was injured or couldn't play. She had been doing very well in the practices and had ended up coming to every one of them; she enjoyed Quidditch a lot, but still kept by her agreement and still solemnly refused to go play in any of the matches unless it was absolutely necessary. She played exceedingly well, better than Catherine (she preferred Cath) at Seeker, despite Cath actually being the teams Seeker, even Cath said so. But she still kept by her word and was much happier to watch the match.

Everyone got up earlier the morning of the match, for two reasons; firstly because of the match, and secondly because of Teddy arriving. The Potters and the Weasleys were very excited about the prospect of seeing him again, Victoire the most of course. He had arrived with Al and James' father, who had been teaching a lesson at the school on the Friday; Teddy had arrived the previous evening. They were very excited to see him when they came to breakfast on the Saturday morning, their smiles were wiped off however when they saw him caught up with Victoire at the Gryffindor table.

James walked down the aisle to them,

"Seriously mate, in front of the whole family," James said as they stopped and Teddy got up and hugged his friend, who was basically his brother, they had grown up together. Teddy laughed at his comment and then went on hugging the rest of his family.

"Hey Teddy! How's Auror training?" Rose asked amongst the greetings.

"Great! It's a bit boring though, and I've got three more years of it," He said as he sat back down, the rest siting opposite and around them. Clara, Eliza and Poppy were sitting a little awkwardly at the end.

"Oh sorry, this is Clara, Eliza and Poppy. This is Teddy," Al said when he realised how awkward and misplaced they looked. The girls waved at the blue haired young man.

"Hi," he said before the conversation turned to the Quidditch match, obviously pro Gryffindor and Scorpius wasn't currently at the table as his Quidditch captain was very strict and had got him up at six and they were already warming up. Soon after they had leave though as the hall was filling up and Fred, James and Al needed to get ready. The others left to wrap on the cold morning; it was October.

A bit later Eliza, Poppy, Rose, Clara and Louis all walked down to the Quidditch pitch, all wrapped in coats and Gryffindor Scarfs. The morning was cool and overcast, a cold breeze sweeping across the rolling Scottish hills. Hair blowing in the wind, wrapping across their faces, hands neatly placed in pockets.

The stands were fast filling up, the cheers already quite loud. The pitch was a sea of scarlet and emerald, flags waving and shouts for their house very loud. The teachers grim faces, with rolled eyes at the excitable and very loud pupils. There was also Harry Potter sat next to Professor Longbottom, they were smiling and chatting happily as the rest of the school reached the stands. There were some strange glances and quiet whispers in his direction, he took no notice though, he was there to catch up with his old friends and see his sons play the first Quidditch match of the year.

Gryffindor had been the champions of the Quidditch cup for many years, and it looked even before the match had started that their reign was set to continue. They had good players this time around, and they were worked very hard by Charles, who was also an exceptional player. But despite James Potter only being in third- year, he was the best on the team and would most likely take captaincy the following year and would go on to have a career in Quidditch like his mother. Chris Wood was also a brilliant player, the child of two former Gryffindor players who went on to do Quidditch as well, Katie Bell and Oliver Wood, good friends of Harry Potter also. Chris had always played Quidditch as a kid and wanted more than anything to get to play for Puddlemere United, his favourite team.

The match started ten minutes later, the players lined up, a cold stare and a reluctant handshake was given by the Slytherin captain Augustus Pinthon to Charles; he returned the look before he went back to his place among his team mates. There was another cold stare between the Seekers, where the most intense rivalry was usually anyway. Catherine was a very competitive girl, so was Jake Harriashaw, they were in the same year and had been Seekers for the team since third-year; they had been rivals for years, but were best friends anyway. Them competing was a highlight in the calendar for them, they didn't carry their friendship onto the pitch and would do basically anything to win.

Al wasn't very confident at all; his brother was the opposite however. Al was very worried about all the eventualities he had created in his head, no matter what anyone had said he was still very nervous for the match, where he could drop the Quaffle or something and they'd then blame him for losing the match. The truth was the opposite obviously. James was basically certain of their victory, he had a plan. A plan that had won them loads of matches. He would breeze through the match, without fault or injury.

Before Al could decide what to do Madame Blackwood blew her whistle and the players set off. James was the first to catch the ball, and he held it under his arm as he sped through the other players towards the goal posts. No one was shocked by his strong start, the commentator Jade Newbury of Ravenclaw, commentated on it being the usual.

"Oh and here goes Potter, straight away with the Quaffle, dodging a bludger sent from Roade. He is going for the top post, he throws and Snow tries to get the ball, but ooh he fails 10 points to Gryffindor," she called among the cheers and chants from the Gryffindors and they roared when he threw the ball. After the ball was thrown the game went on the snitch not in sight, well the seekers hadn't seen the small golden flying ball. Half an hour later the score was at 70-10 to Gryffindor. It had been unlucky when Chris had missed the ball that shot passed him, naturally the Slytherins were in very poor moods at this point, just hoping for Jake Harriashaw to spot the snitch and for them to win. However a lot of them had realised that it was a lost cause since the Gryffindors were the reigning champions and had a strong team.

Fortunately for them a few minutes later the Seekers spotted the snitch; the two very fast players set off immediately. Not caring for the cool breeze they sped to the other side of the pitch where the small ball was fluttering, it was already moving though. Cath had the better broom so was ahead of Jake as they reached the other side. The ball swerved left and the boy and girl followed, hands outstretched reaching for the ball which suddenly went bolt upright. Annoyed they followed diving up wards, vertically. They had tucked their arms in and now were holding firmly to their broom as the ball fell to the ground once again. They nose-dived to catch the ball.

They had almost got to the floor when they pulled away, and the Snitch fell to the ground before it stopped, and lay motionless in the grass. Cath and Jake gave each other a look before they lept back down hands out once again as they tried to grab it, and failed. The ball moved again and sped off it the other direction, they tutted before they followed the ball. They were both very irritated by this point and just wanted to get the Snitch.

Slytherin hadn't gained any more points since the snitch had been spotted and Gryffindor had though the score was now 100-10. So far James had scored five of the goals, Al had scored the last and Charles had scored two. The crowd was still roaring.

The Seekers sped off Cath now quite far ahead; Jake's broom wasn't fast enough. She was reaching out as the ball tried to gain speed but failed. Finally she clasped her hand around the ball and lifted it up in the air, to cheers of happiness and sighs of disappointment. Jake looked a little lost as he saw his friend clasping his way out of the match. Scorpius, who had scored the only goal for his team, was smiling at Al who had scored a goal. He was upset they hadn't won, but it was the first match of many.

The Gryffindors were now screeching as they sang their chant, when the players were walking off the pitch. The Slytherins however were quite the opposite and had sullen faces as they walked out of the stands and back up to the castle. A few of the teachers were smiling, Professor Longbottom especially, as he was the head of Gryffindor; the headmistress was also rather cheery as she'd been Quidditch player for the house many years ago, and despite her efforts to not be biased she was a little more happy when Gryffindor won something than if the other houses did. Harry, who was walking back with Neville Longbottom, was very cheery as well, because his sons had both scored some of the goals, he was eager to see them face-to-face again after about two months. Talking via letters and the Floo network was good and all but it just wasn't the same. He met up with his sons in the entrance hall minutes later.

"Well done in the match!" Harry said as he patted Al's back awkwardly.

"Thanks, I guess," Al said as they started to walk back out into the grounds, still in Quidditch gear. He was a bit like his dad in the way he was with modesty, and really didn't know how to answer to a compliment.

"So how's school?" their dad asked trying to make some sort of conversation, and failing; sometimes they all needed Molly there.

"Really, Dad? You don't see us for like two months and all you ask is how's school?" James exclaimed; he was in a little bit of a sulk about the one goal Slytherin had scored, but would never have a go at Chris or anything, but still had the mind set to think that he could do it all himself and didn't need anyone else to win the match. This trait or habit would be his downfall. Harry laughed as they walked on through the trees outside the castle.

"So how's mum?" Al asked after a while.

"Fine, she would have liked to come up you know and see the match, but she had to work," He replied.

"Didn't she say the last time we spoke that someone called Jane at work was making her do loads and stay really late or something?" Al asked. Their dad replied, and they soon all got chatting about random stuff. They walked around for a while, still chatting, but Harry had to get back to the ministry as his work was pilling up as he had taken two days off already. He had to leave, Teddy also. They walked back into the school where they found Victoire and Teddy hugging in the middle of the entrance hall, then they kissed just before Teddy and Harry had to walk back down to Hogsmeade to Disapperate back to the Ministry. The boys walked back to the dorms; they were by this time actually still in their Quidditch gear and rather hot and sweaty.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team didn't have another match till the following term, but that didn't mean that the intense practices would stop. If anything it meant they had more of them. It was now November and everything was in place as if everyone had been there for years. Nothing noticeably strange had occurred during this time, apart from a particularly mean first-year, of the name Violet Clive hexing Anna, from Rose and Clara's dorm. It was a particularly nasty Jelly Legs Curse, where she'd learnt it no one knew, but still it had meant that Anna had to be sent to the Hospital wing for a few days. It would seem that Violet would be the bully in their year. Of course this debarcle meant that the majority of the Gryffindor house was now on the defensive about Anna. They were the sort of people that when one small thing happened that was slightly bad they would do literally anything to make it not occur again. Well, they were the courageous and chivalrous house, but not always were they loyal.

Other than that though nothing much happened. The days went slowly, like when you drink a thick smoothie and the mixture seems to just go on forever. To make matters slightly worse they had been told that at the end of the term they were going to have the delightful joy of some new exams; you can imagine how ecstatic they were, not. This though, excited Rose Weasley greatly; her mother also sent new stationary items for her. And even though the tests were a month away she was already revising as if they were OWLs and making all her friends do the same. It was a big joy to everyone when they got a Saturday off for Poppy's birthday on the 23rd November. Rose had given them the day off. They had spent the day outside with a picnic of food they'd gotten from a particularly lenient house elf from the kitchens. They had also snuck some balloons and things from Flitch's office. No one was sure how Al had managed to get the party items; he brushed them off whenever they asked.

They basically spent the day chatting, laughing and playing underneath the big willow tree outside Gryffindor Tower. During the past three or so months Eliza, Poppy, Clara, Rose, Louis, Al and Scorpius had all become close friends. Eliza and Poppy however were still best friends and Eliza had gone to the huge effort of getting something related to a muggle thing that they both loved as a birthday present. No one else knew what it meant, but obviously it was really cool as Poppy was over the moon. Overall it was just a really nice break for everyone; their moods had been lifted substantially. They stayed out till rather late, and only went in when Professor Longbottom came outside to suggest that they went back inside, because the prefects were about to start their patrols, and he didn't really want them to get detentions. They reluctantly sauntered back in to the dark castle, where Scorpius left to go to his dorm and the rest settled in front of the dying fire in the Gryffindor Common room.

"Well, It's been a good day, I think," Eliza said as she threw herself onto the sofa. They all murmured in agreement as they all sat down

"Thanks Poppy," Rose said amongst yawns, it was getting rather late, the common room was basically deserted, if it hadn't have been they would have been getting hard looks from the seventh-years anyway.

"I didn't do anything, thank Al. He was the one who got all the stuff," Poppy answered rather slowly, her eyelids battered heavily, she was finding it hard to stay awake, " Please tell us how you got all the stuff, we won't judge if you say you had to kiss a house elf."

They all laughed at Poppy's remark,

"No way am I telling you, and before you ask again I didn't kiss a house elf. It's nothing like that I swear," Al exclaimed. They all laughed once again, and then they finished all the sweets Al had collected and things. And slowly one by one they all retired to their dorms as the dark night drew in. The fire was now just glowing embers and the school was silent. The air was a lot cooler, and by this time, the only ones still awake were Louis, Eliza and Al, sort of. Al was sort of half- asleep on the sofa, but the others dared not wake him so they just left him on the sofa, and thought it better to wake him in the morning, like Rose had done when Clara had fell asleep.

Louis wasn't really one for being enormously tired at night; he found it hard to sleep sometimes, and even at this hour wasn't tired at all. Eliza was tired but still pushing through; she was too kind to leave Louis alone in the common room. But she felt her eyelids softly shut, and Louis decided it was time to do the same. He grabbed some blankets from the chest on the other side of the room. He put one over each of his friends, and he too drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

Even the very next day Rose got everyone up early so that they could revise for the tests that were three weeks later.

"Come on get up we have 12 hours of work to do. Wake up!" Rose shouted as she threw back the curtains in her dorm early on the Sunday morning.

"Rose it's like eight on a Sunday morning, and we went to bed late. For god's sake just give us a moments rest," Clara said sleepily as she sat up and rubbed her eyes as they tried to adjust to the bright light.

"No come on down for breakfast ten mins," Rose called as she left the room, in search of Eliza who wasn't in her bed. Clara and the others groaned heavily as they heaved themselves out of bed, still half-asleep. Rose walked down the steps into the common room to find three of her friends asleep around or on the sofa. She laughed to herself for a moment before she woke them up.

"Guys, you need to wake up. We're going to breakfast in ten. Have you really all slept here in the freezing cold," Rose asked as she shook them awake. Al groaned heavily and turned the other way, trying to go back to sleep. Rose decided that it was a lost cause she shook all three of them once more and then sighed. She walked back over to the window, looked down on where they'd spent the previous day, she sighed once again and checked whether the others had gone back to their dorms, thankfully they had. Five minutes later everyone was back down and they all walked back to the great hall for breakfast. They spent the whole day in the library, with Scorpius as well, looking over what they'd learned so far. They were incredibly bored however when it reached about three, they all decided to abandon it for the time being, Rose reluctantly obviously.

The next two weeks passed incredibly quickly, with the lead up to the tests they had barely any spare time. The castle now looked like it had been coated in icing sugar, the whole castle was a lot cooler and even the care of magical creatures lessons had to be taken inside, it was one of the coldest winters for a long time. Even though the exams were minor ones they still had to have them in the great hall over four afternoons in the penultimate week. It was rather daunting for the children as most hadn't done any exams at all or hadn't done any important ones ever. Though all the children that had gone to muggle primary schools had to take SATs, but they didn't mean anything in the big scheme of things.

The first test was Transfiguration, in which they had to perform what they'd done during their first practical lesson. Most of them performed it successfully with the first try, it was a basic transfiguration. They just had to say the spell in front of a teacher and the mouse they had to transfigure. They had their lessons in the morning like normal so they had been allowed to practise everything they could possibly be tested on earlier that morning. That evening they had their astronomy test which was mapping a small section of the sky. It was rather easy and only a few had problems, their end of year test would be the whole sky, which was a lot harder.

The following day they had Charms, where they had to make a feather float, which was actually a rather tricky spell to master. They also had their Potions test which proved to be quite hard, and unfortunately for Al he had to do the test in front of Professor Slughorn, who said that he had specially requested to test Al. Al wasn't at all pleased as during the whole test the Potions professor had kept saying about his pure talent that he'd got from his grandmother. Al was in a pretty bad mood when he left the hall.

On the Wednesday they had their defence against the dark arts exam, which was a very hard one, but Professor Kirk had warned them that it was going to be tricky but that the exam was only to see how everyone was getting on, and was a lesson for the end of year exams. Defence against the Dark Arts however was the majority of Gryffindors favourite subject, so they all fared well.

On the last day they had their Herbology exam, which was quite easy, but Professor Longbottom didn't like tests that were just for the ones that did well in his lessons, he wanted everyone to do a test where they could see their strengths. They didn't have an exam in Care Of Magical Creatures as they hadn't covered enough material yet, so they would have to wait until the end of the year.

Despite the tests not being as bad as everyone had feared, everyone was still exhausted by the weekend. They hadn't been given any homework and were going home on the next Friday. The next week anyway they probably wouldn't do much lesson stuff just fun Christmassy things. So that weekend was for messing around and packing as there really wasn't anything better to do.

"What are you doing in the Hols?" Al asked as they all sat in an empty classroom chatting about random things, well mainly Quidditch.

"Umm, nothing much. I spend Christmas with my grandparents, other than that I just play with Katie. What about you lot?" Clara answered.

"Family stuff. Christmas dinner is now for about thirty of usThe washing up would be hell if it wasn't for magic," Rose laughed.

"Skiing with my parents and sister. We go every year I have never had a Christmas at home, It sucks," Eliza said as she reached over for a Chocolate frog.

"Wales… Camping," Poppy said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Well you lot should come for New Year, Clara it would be nice if Katie met Lily, Hugo and Lucy, as they're the same year as her. It'd be nice if she knew someone when she comes next year," Al said before he stopped himself and his face looked ashen, "Oh sorry, I forgot you're muggleborn. Is Katie coming next year? It'd be good even if she wasn't but-"

"Al its fine, I'm sure she is. I once caught her brushing her teeth with levitating toothpaste. If you'd mind having us over We'd love to come," Clara said. Eliza was still in Austria at New Year but Poppy and Scorpius were both around, so they settled that they'd have a sort of New Year's party at the Burrow.

The next week, as expected passed quickly, and amongst cheers. They were going to be getting their results on the Thursday, when they didn't have any lessons, the day before they left to go back home, they were to leave for Hogsmeade station at 11 on the Friday. The received their results at Lunch on the Thursday, but there were seven that hadn't, Clara, Al, Rose, Scorpius, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, the twin sons of Luna and Rolf Scamander, the boys were rather good friends with Al and the rest of them; also there was another Ravenclaw called Nathaniel. Moments after everyone else had received their results a prefect called to the seven and asked them to go to McGonagall's office in half an hour. Confused they promptly left the Great Hall and got to the staircase that lead to the Headmistresses office. Moments later the stair case started moving upwards, and they all stepped on and were climbing upwards towards the Professor office.

The aged, but kind lady sat at the desk at the end of the room, half-moon spectacles perched on her nose. She acknowledged their presence and ushered them in further before addressing them,

"I brought you in here to congratulate you personally in your achievements in the tests that you had last week. You seven did the best in the year, and I thought it would be nice if you came up here, do help yourself to a sherbet lemon," The teacher spoke gesturing over to a small ball filled with small yellow fizzy sweets. They took one and then Professor McGonagall called them up one by one and gave them their results.

"Well done 98% overall, only one mark lost in Defence against the Dark Arts," The Professor said to Rose who was smiling sheepishly.

"Clara Lake," The professor called," Here yours is, very well done. You're doing as well as your father did."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hello, sorry it's been a while. Please review and follow!:)**

"Clara Lake," the professor called, "Here's yours, very well done. You're doing as well as your father did."

After she said this the room fell silent, everyone was staring at Clara. Despite the fact that a few of them knew her only by name and blood status, they were all still rather shocked. Clara obviously looked the worst; it took her quite a while before she could muster up the energy to start a sentence. The elderly professor was beginning to worry when no one spoke and everyone's mouths had dropped.

"I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?" she said in her neat Scottish accent.

"No, no, my father was a muggle; I was muggle-born," Clara stuttered after a long pause.

"No, I am certain he went to Hogwarts, he left in fourth year. Miss Lake, your father was a wizard, I didn't know he hadn't told you but he was definitely a wizard," she said.

"No, you're getting it wrong, my father went to some boarding school in Scotland. He worked in some ministry…" at those words the professor raised an eyebrow. That was when it hit Clara, "…Oh!"

A few in the room found it a little funny that it had taken her so long to realise that he was a wizard, the rest were still shocked. Clara didn't speak after that, her face had paled and she looked sullen. Professor McGonagall handed out the remainder of the results and wished them a good holiday before she led them out of the room to finish packing.

"Clara, are you okay, you look slightly ill." Rose said as they made their way to the Gryffindor tower.

"No I'm fine, a bit shocked, that's all," Clara said as she picked herself up and forced a smile. Rose and the others were still worried though, she still looked a bit lost and uneasy. They reached the portrait hole and stepped through into the busy common room. Eliza was sat on the sofa reading a book, she looked up when she heard the swing of the portrait, she had been waiting for them to return, and wanted to find out why they hadn't got their results and what the headmistress wanted with them. The others walked towards her, Clara at the front, her forced smile no longer on; she had reverted back to the pale sullen ill look.

"Merlin's Beard, Clara, are you alright? What happened?" Eliza asked as Clara walked towards her and sat down.

"She's okay, I think. She has just found out that her dad was a wizard; not a muggle like she thought," Rose said as she sat down on the rugged sofa next to Clara who mumbled something incoherent as she nibbled a bit on her nails. Eliza set her book down beside her and leant over to Clara, and hugged her.

"Aww, Clara that must be shocking to hear," Eliza said.

"I'm not annoyed or anything; it's just that he never said. Like I understand that he died when I was only four, but still even my mum never said anything to me after then, or when I got my letter. I'm disappointed more than anything," Clara said glumly, "I am going to get so annoyed at her when I get home. She never said anything to me or Katie. Why didn't I see that he was very weird about his job, and he rarely spoke about when he was younger. It may also explain why I never saw my grandparents."

"Clara, don't blame yourself. It was their fault for never telling you. Also, just a question, was your mum weird about it when she found out you were a witch?" Rose said.

"Not really, well no weirder than any normal person would react in that situation. But she is a good actress, I am certain she knows. I won't say anything till I'm home tomorrow though. My mum and Katie are both coming to pick me up from the platform," Clara said as the others worried slightly about what she was going to do when she got home. Clara decided that it was best if she just retreated back to her dorm room and finished packing.

"I think we should check on Clara after she gets back, I don't want anything bad to happen, like her falling out with her mum. Clara said a few weeks ago that her fireplace was now able to be used to floo. I think I will just check the day after we get home that she's okay," Al said. The others agreed.

Clara tried to put it behind her that evening, thankfully her friends made that easy. The last evening was rather fun, and slightly manic thanks to the disorganisation of many of the students. Rose obviously had packed almost a week ago; Louis packed the next morning…ten minutes before they had to go to Hogsmeade station.

They went to bed rather late on the last night, understandably.

"So, where do you go on holiday?" Scorpius asked Eliza, they were all in an abandoned classroom as the Gryffindor common room was so busy, and they wanted to speak to the Scamander twins and Scorpius.

"I think we're going to Switzerland next Tuesday, my sister doesn't get off school till Friday. What you up to?" Eliza said slightly bored at the prospect of skiing, it seemed odd that it bored her to everyone else in the room.

"I think I'm being forced up to one of our other houses in Devon…wait no…Scotland… yep I'm going with Scotland, final answer," Scorpius said modestly whilst laughing, then reaching for a fizzing whizzbee.

"We're coming to yours obviously, and I also think we're coming over for a few days while our parents are away for work," Lorcan said as he stretched his legs in weariness.

"We're also going away Puerto Rico as dad's discovered a Striped Scrimble…or so he says he has, you never know with him or mum," Lysander mentioned amongst yawns.

"Oh wait I forgot to clarify. You're all okay to sleep over on New Year's. Mum said that we get the tree house and the younger ones get the outhouse. So like bring sleeping bags and stuff," Al said just as he remembered.

"If my dad's coming what the hell are we going to do like about Ron?" Scorpius said, shocked as he realised half-way through his consumption of a liquorice leech. He had managed to spit on Rose, who was sat opposite him. Rose wiped her face in disgust.

"Thanks!" Rose said disgusted.

"Sorry!" Scorpius muttered shyly.

"I think we will make a plan-" Rose started.

"Of destruction," Lorcan said triumphantly as he lifted his arm up in honour or victory. Everyone laughed at Lorcan's comment.

"No! A plan of desimation obviously!" Rose mocked as everyone laughed once again. They never did get round to the actual plans for New Year's, the Napoleonic wars came up. So the topic of famous wizards and witches that are appear to be muggles that aren't was discussed in a lot of detail, it shocked Eliza, Poppy and Clara all of whom hadn't got much knowledge of the wizarding world. They laughed for quite a while until they heard a prefect going past the door, at which point they decided that they should go back to their dorms as they didn't fancy losing points on the last day of term.

They creeped back to the towers in pairs in five minute intervals. Lorcan was in Ravenclaw but his twin, Lysander, was in Hufflepuff, they both had been hat stalls and both could have been in either house; they were as loyal and clever as each other. They all slept meagrely that night, the excitement of the holidays was one of the multiple reasons.

"What time do we need to be down at the entrance hall?" James asked his younger brother the next morning as he chewed his cheeriOwls sleepily.

"Ten fifteen I think," Al answered groggily, he wasn't fully awake yet.

"Sshh, please don't talk too loud, it's like nine and I got basically no sleep; so please shut up," Poppy moaned as she gave the Potters a hard stare before she returned to her tea, which had many sugars in.

"Ooooooooh! That's nice!" James mocked sarcastically. Poppy replied by throwing two pieces of recently buttered and rather jammy toast at him. His face was now covered in a sticky pinky-yellowy paste which everyone around him was now staring and laughing at. He quickly wiped it off, but his face still looked rather pink. Whether that was from the raspberry jam or his embarrassment no one knew. Fred and Molly found it the funniest; it also appeared that they wouldn't probably ever let this go; him getting in a food fight with a twelve-year old.

"Thanks Poppy, he really needed that," Molly said as she turned to the short blonde haired girl next to her.

"You're very welcome," Poppy answered as she pretended to bow.

A few minutes later the girls from Clara's dorm left to check that they had everything they needed for the holidays, as they were leaving some of their stuff at Hogwarts.

"I really need to go to Diagon Alley at some point, anyone want to come?" Rose asked as they reached the top of the stairs.

"Ooh yeah I really need to get another copy of Fantastic Beasts, I think Violet stole it, I saw her snooping in my bag in Potions," Poppy said, "Clara, you want to come?" Clara nodded; she hadn't spoken at all really since the day before.

"I'll write or something, Anna you want to come?" Rose said as they reached the portrait, recited the password then walked inside. The petite girl shook her head then ran up the steps to their dorm.

"That was weird," Eliza said as she looked up the stairs, and then looked back at the others with a weird expression on her face.

Half an hour later most of the students who were going home for the holidays were in the entrance hall.

"Where the hell are they?" Rose called as she looked up at the stairs, four of their friends still hadn't come down, Louis, Al, Chris and John, the last two they didn't actual know all that well, but they were all in the same dorm.

* * *

"Come on we need to go, Louis. Right we're leaving without you, you're spending the holiday with Lewis here. See you soon, we'll tell Vic, Dom and your parents that you couldn't be bothered to pack in time so you won't be home for Christmas. We'll say you're sorry," Al shouted as he pretended to leave.

"Geez, I am packing we're not going to die for being late, they know we're not staying here over the holidays," Louis shouted as he shoved a few t-shirts into his case.

"Right I'm going now. Lewis, have a nice holiday see you soon, I'll write. Come on Chris and John leave Louis. Bye Then!" Al said as the other two followed and he closed the door.

"No, no wait. Right I'm ready," Louis shouted as he patted his pockets and lifted his suitcase before saying goodbye to Lewis and exited the room, running up to the other boys.

* * *

"Oh wait, here they are!" Scorpius said as he looked back up to the stairs and saw four boys running down the steps. They quickly dumped their bags on the trolleys, and then walked over to their group of friends. The rest of the journey home was hassle free and rather fun. They reached platform 9¾ just before five, there were loads of parents and siblings on the platform edge, all waving frantically. Teddy Lupin was standing next to his godfather smiling sheepishly and holding roses for his girlfriend, Victoire. The train was busy and rowdy as it ground to a halt, bags were thrown around and people rushed off the train. Vic was one of the first, she was wearing probably one of the biggest smiles ever, and she sprinted towards Teddy, kissing and hugging him quickly. James obviously pretended to be sick as he stepped on to the busy platform and walked over to his sister and parents. Clara kept a straight and annoyed face as she walked over to Katie and her mum. Ginny and Harry walked over to them, along with Al and Lily.

"Hello you must be Louisa, Clara's mum, and this is Katie, right?" Harry said as he stretched out his hand, for Louisa to shake.

"Yes, I am,you're Harry and this must be your wife, Ginny, good to meet you. Are you sure you don't mind having us at New Year?" Louisa said as she picked up Clara's rucksack and greeted them kindly.

"Yes, yes that's fine. I'm sure Al's told Clara that the kids are staying over. You are welcome to stay over as well, If you want, do you?" Harry offered as his hands retreated back to his pockets, and Hermione and Ron's family also came up behind.

"Yes, but are you sure that's fine?" Louisa said as she adjusted the bags straps. Ginny and Harry both nodded. Ginny and Harry and their kids said goodbye to Louisa and then to Hermione and Ron before they excused themselves and they headed for the wall which would take them back to the muggle station. Hermione quickly after the Potters left she caught up with Louisa, who were now leaving.

"Sorry Louisa, I'm Hermione, Rose's mum. I was wondering if your family would like to come round for dinner sometime. I have a son your younger daughter's age, and Rose said that you liked reading and things, and I think it would be nice if we maybe got to know each other before the New Year's party, so you'd maybe know a few more people?" Hermione said as Louisa turned around.

"Oh that would be lovely, do you have a number? I could call you" Louisa asked. Hermione nodded then fished around in her handbag, then drew out a piece of paper and a pen. They exchanged numbers, and then they left, heading towards the floo station on the platform. Clara hadn't spoken since she had left the platform, her mum found this weird, because usually Clara was a very chatty girl, but this time she was silent and wore a hard stare. They soon found themselves in their kitchen, rather sooty, but fine. They dumped their bags, and Louisa put the kettle on. A few minutes later the three girls were sat at the kitchen table all with tea in their hands.

"So how's school?" Louisa said as she slowly sipped her rather hot mint tea. Clara didn't say anything, and continued to stare out the window where she could see the large tree house.

"Clara, hello. How was school?" Louisa said a little louder, as she frantically waved her hands in front of her daughters face. Clara looked away again.

"Come on, Clara what's wrong?" Louisa said as she pushed the plate of custard creams towards Clara.

"You tell me," Clara said as he cold stare, now looked into her mum's eyes, making her uncomfortable.

"Clara, what is it?" Louisa said as she fidgeted around in her seat

"Were you ever gonna tell us that dad was a wizard, huh?" Clara said.

"Clara-" her mum started before she was interrupted by her daughters shouting.

"WHAT, DAD WAS A WIZARD!" Katie shouted, almost choking on her tea.

"Why did you never tell us? You never said anything, not once!" Clara shouted as she put her tea down, not that calmly.

"DAD! ARE YOU SERIOUS HE WAS LIKE YOU AND ME?" Katie continued yelling.

"YES! Katie shut up he is, leave it and ask the actual questions!" Clara shouted at Katie.

"Mum, why won't you tell us?" Katie yelled.

"Katie Calm-"Louisa said calmly.

"You knew all along, we thought he was normal and we were just weird. We knew barely anything about him, and you knew so much more!" Clara shouted as she slammed the door, and walked out into the garden.

"Katie, I'm sorry-" Louisa started, before Katie too turned to leave.

"You're evil, to never say anything. Were you ever going to say?" Katie said as she went up the stairs to her room. Louisa sighed heavily, shook her head and continued to sip her tea. She decided it was best if she left them to cool down, and would explain what happened later, when they were less annoyed. She knew this day would come about eventually, but she had hoped it would be later on. She hadn't said anything for a reason but wasn't in love with the idea of telling her two children, who were both witches.

A few hours later Clara came back in to the house, Louisa was staring hard at some graphs for her work.

"Clara, please listen. If you go and get Katie, I will explain," Louisa said as she looked and folded the pages over.

"Promise?" Clara said.

"Yes, I do want to tell you, but you were being a little bit irrational earlier," Louisa said earnestly. Clara, still a little sceptical, ran up the stairs in search of Katie. She reached the door with the large poster of the Avengers on it. She knocked then called for her to come down. They went down the stairs and joined their mother who had made another three cups of tea.

"Right, I am going to explain what happened. Please don't judge me or your father for what happened, he didn't want you to be in danger," Louisa said before she started with her speech. Both her daughters wore sceptical looks, certain that they would have a fight after the conversation was over.

"Firstly, you know how I met your father?" Louisa asked after she had taken a rather large breath.

"Yes," The girls said in unison.

"Well, that really wasn't the whole story. You know how I said he was sat opposite me on the tube, and he was reading the paper and I asked if I could read one of the articles, and then we got chatting and we missed our stop. Well that's not what really happened. Clara, you know that the wizarding papers have pictures that move," Louisa said, before Katie interrupted.

"Cool!" Katie interrupted.

"Well, what I said was partly true, he was reading a paper, but it was a wizarding one. The picture on the front was peculiar, it was a young girl on a broomstick, but she kept flying around the page. Obviously I thought it was the weirdest thing ever so I asked what it was, and he denied that it moved, and then I commented on the weird article titles, 'Potter Girl is flying her best season, while pregnant!' He started laughing, and then we had an argument about whether it was real. After we got off on the wrong stop, he offered to buy me a drink, in compensation that I had missed my stop. We met up for coffee for a few weeks, and then he decided that we should have dinners rather than coffee. He met your grandparents, and then we went on a family holiday to Scotland. That was when he explained the newspaper, and then he told me that he was a wizard. I admit that I overreacted a little bit…" Louisa said with a large smile on her face, when she said the last comment Clara and Katie both had a 'you serious' face on.

"Okay, a lot," Louisa rephrased, "After that holiday I didn't see him for a week, but after that we moved in together. Two and a bit years later we got married, then four years later I became pregnant with you, Clara. We didn't tell you for a reason after you were born; I can't and won't tell you why. Someone with more knowledge of your world needs to tell you, I don't think I should. You should just know after he went, and I was left alone, thinking he hadn't been honest. I was a wreck when they found his body, but I knew he left for our safety. That's why I never told you afterwards, I didn't want you to get caught up in the mess he was. I am sorry you found out like this, I was going to tell you but I was worried what you'd think of me or him. Do you believe me that I didn't tell you for a decent reason?" Louisa finished letting out a big breath of air, waiting for the answer from her daughters who wore an unreadable expression.

"I guess, but you haven't really explained it all. I think I'm just going to think it over, can I go see Will and Georgie maybe?" Clara said quite uneasily. Her mother nodded and she left the room, grabbed her coat and left.

"So what's for tea?" Katie perked up, her mum was half glad and half confused by her daughters disregard for the information she had just received.

"Pizza?" her mum answered, after she had wiped her eyes, and lightly shook her head. Katie nodded enthusiastically as she then left to fetch her notebook, which was lying on the side of the breakfast table. Katie wrote everything down in notebooks; she had used up around sixteen since she had taken up the habit.

Clara didn't come back till late, a long time after the others had eaten, she had eaten dinner at Will's. She didn't say anything when she got back; she just headed straight to bed and was asleep by the time Louisa went to bed. The next morning Clara woke up late, as per usual. The others were already dressed by the time she came down at eleven.

"Morning, or shall I say almost afternoon," Katie said as she checked her Lego watch. Clara grumbled as she wandered over to the kettle and very slowly made herself a tea. She then made Nutella on toast. She was very tired, so there was quite a lot of Nutella on the toast, if Louisa had come into the room before she had lathered the Nutella on the toast. A few minutes later they heard a weird popping sound come from the fireplace, they turned and saw Al and Rose standing their, covered in soot.

"Umm, hello? What are you doing here, not being rude?" Clara asked with a mouthful of toast.

"Sorry, we were just checking you were okay, that you got back fine and stuff," Al said just as Louisa who thought them suddenly arriving was a bit weird, but she knew she would have to get used to people randomly dropping in.

"Actually, we were just checking nothing bad had happened about your father because you said you were really annoyed, and we are just checking you're okay," Rose said, Clara nodded then they said their goodbyes, and they went back to the burrow. Clara had a counter-productive day. She spent pretty much the first three days not really talking and reading in the garden on her own. She did however send letters to her friends, and saw Georgie and Will. Clara felt a little bit weird being with them though, because they were different now, well Georgie was. It wasn't like when they were together in primary school anymore, they had all grown up a bit in the last few months.

"Clara, we're going to Rose's house tomorrow night for dinner," Louisa said as Clara walked through the house dripping wet, "Wait, hold on a minute; why are you soaking wet?"

"Have you seen the weather?" Clara said as she pointed out of the window. Louisa ahh'd before she went back to her conference call.

The next day at six in the evening, the Lake family found themselves on the doorstep of Rose's house.

"Remember be polite, Clara don't ignore Katie when you're with Rose. Katie you aren't writing in that notebook the whole time, it's rather rude. And be polite," Louisa said just after she had knocked on the door. Seconds later Hermione answered the door, hair loosely tied in a bun, apron and oven mitts on.

"Come in. Hugo and Rose are in the living room," Hermione said as she ushered them in, taking the large tub of cupcakes Louisa had made earlier from her hands.

"Thank you so much for inviting us!" Louisa said as she followed Hermione into the kitchen, "Hello! You must be Ron, I'm Louisa."

Ron shook her hand then went over to a cupboard and asked what drink she'd like to have. Louisa opted for water; Ron then left the room and called for the children. Rose and Clara were in a deep conversation about some book; Hugo and Katie were talking about some TV show they both watch. They all sat down on the large dining room table, and Hermione started serving the lasagne.

"So what do you do in the muggle world?" Hermione asked after everyone had got their food, and they had dug in.

"Umm, well I am in science. I work with telescopes, I am an astrophysicist. But I'm not quite sure you know what that is," Louisa answered as she sipped her water. Hermione nodded enthusiastically as Louisa spoke.

"That sounds really interesting, we did astronomy in school up until third-year. What sort of thing do you do?" Hermione asked.

"Umm well, I study stars, like star systems. My speciality is sorting new stars that we find and sorting them into their types like Brown or White Dwarf etc. What do you do in the Wizarding world?" Louisa answered, hoping they'd understand at least some of what she was saying.

"I work in my brother's shop in Diagon Alley have been there. It's the rather large joke shop at the end," Ron answered laughing awkwardly.

"I work in the Ministry, I work in the Department Of Law Enforcement," Hermione said.

"That sounds really interesting. I saw your shop when I went with Clara. It's the one with the Puppet guy at the front that takes off his hat, right?" Louisa said.

"Yeah, we're trying to open a new shop in the village next to Hogwarts, where we are trying to get a puppet to dance on the roof," Ron said laughing. The children were all immersed in a conversation about Quidditch. They were telling Katie about it, Hugo was explaining which team was the best 'nicely'. By dessert they were all laughing like old friends.

"…and then it went all over my face!" Louisa said laughing, "I was wondering, how you two met?"

"School. I think you met Harry at the station last week. Well, we were all in the same year, we were really good friends, since our first-year. During the last year of school we ended up together and Harry ended up with Ron's sister, Ginny, who you also met," Hermione explained.

"How did you propose?" Louisa asked, a huge smile on her face.

"Shall I do it, Mione?" Ron asked looking at his wife, she nodded, "Well when I first met her I was on the train to Hogwarts, and I was with Harry. We didn't like her at first, but as she left the compartment, she pointed out that I had dirt on my nose. A few years after we had left school we were living together, and I came into the front room with a little bit of dirt on my nose," at this moment Louisa aww'd, Hugo imitated being sick, "Thanks Hugo, well Hermione looked at me and walked over and asked to get the dirt. I said its luck for what I'm about to ask. Then I asked her and she freaked out, and then said yes."

Then Hermione and Louisa helped clear up in the kitchen, they had let the kids watch a movie in the other room. Ron had escaped to feed Rose and Hugo's guinea pigs, he didn't really want to disturb them and make them feed the animals.

"Thank you for having us over, it's nice to know some else that will be there on New Year's," Louisa said as she dried up the large lasagne dish.

"Yeah, I think it's good for Katie and Clara," Hermione said as she washed the cups up, "Ooh wait, do you want to see our library? Rose said you liked reading."

"Oh yes please!" Louisa answered. She then followed Hermione into the hallway, then she opened a door, that didn't look like a door, it was secret door. The door opened to a small room which was basically all book shelves.

"So this is the library. I always loved books growing up, so when I moved here just before Hugo was born, a book room was the first on my agenda. So what do you like to read?" Hermione said as she looked up and around.

"Romance books. Classics. I love Jane Austen," Louisa said as she looked along the spines of some of the books.

"Oh if you like her you have to try this. She's a witch, but she writes the sweetest books," Hermione said as she looked for the author she had in mind, "Borrow this one."

"You sure?" Louisa asked as she took the book, Hermione nodded. Hermione then showed her the reading room which was disguised behind a door that looked like a bookshelf. The reading room in question was filled with cushions and throws.

It was beginning to get late, so Louisa went to fetch Clara and Katie.

"Sorry girls, we need to go. I have work tomorrow," Louisa said as she put her coat on. The girls moaned before they got their coats.

"Thanks so much for having us, and for the book. Girls say thanks," Louisa said.

"Thank you," the girls said in unison.

"Our pleasure, see you soon," Ron said as he closed the door.

The girls stepped into the cold evening in search of the car.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:Hi, sorry I haven't updated in a while. Holiday's got the better of favourite, review and follow:)**

On Christmas Eve the Lake family found themselves on Louisa's parents door step. It was the family tradition to stay at their house till Boxing Day, and to have Christmas lunch at the local pub. Shortly after they had rang the doorbell a short elderly lady answered wearing antlers.

"Hello Dears! Come on in we're only waiting on Matthew and their lot now. Hello Katie and Clara," their grandmother's said as she swung the door open wide.

"Hello Grandma," they sang in unison. They went into the front room and unloaded the cakes and mince pies on the table. The fire in the corner was roaring, and the tree on the other side, which currently was surrounded by a sea of presents. Louisa's other brother Rory and kids were already sat down on one of the sofas, tinsel and Santa hats already on.

"Hey Laura!" Clara called to her cousin, who was currently studying a Lego instruction manual. Laura said something incoherent, and then went back to the booklet. Clara then went off to the kitchen to help her mum and aunts with the food.

"Hello Auntie Amy! How's work?" Clara asked as she grabbed her old apron and tied up her hair.

"Fine, could you possibly help your mum with the trifle?" said her flame haired aunt, who was currently sorting out the potatoes. Clara nodded and then walked over to her mum who was making strawberry jam.

About an hour or so later, after Matthew and his family had arrived, and they all sat down at the now extended (not by magic, but by human labor. This was one of the many times when Clara realized how much easier it was to be a witch) table for dinner; it was their Christmas Dinner, just on the wrong day. Even though the family was close they rarely did get to see each other, but this had been the tradition for a very long time.

"How's school Clara?" Rory asked as he poured gravy all over his plate.

"Fine, made friends. You know, still getting used to it," She answered and she was being a little more distant than she had the previous years. She knew she couldn't't tell them that she was a witch, but she felt bad that she couldn't't share it. Out of all her larger family she liked her Uncle Rory and her Aunt Amy the best, she knew they'd understand if she told them but she knew she couldn't't. Rory noticed her sort of absentness from the conversations, so sensed it was better to leave her. He didn't't ask about school for the rest of the evening.

"Lou, how's work?" Rory asked a few minutes later; for some reason Rory reminded Clara of Molly, always asking away, and not in a nosy way. The rest of the dinner was filled with conversations of nostalgia, and laughter. It went rather fast and too soon was it over and the children were forced to get dressed, so they could go to sleep and the adults could have a chat in private.

That night was a dark and cold one, even though all the children slept in the living room, next to the fire; they were all still huddled in their sleeping bags. The younger ones tried to do an all-nighter, but they fell asleep shortly after about ten thirty. By eleven the house was silent, except for the slow rumbles coming from upstairs. Clara had never slept the night before Christmas, even though it meant that she no longer believed in Father Christmas because of it, she still loved to go outside, to her grandparents garden and watch the stars. Sometimes her mum would join her and they'd sit together, and she'd point out what the constellations were, and what the stars in them were.

Clara snuck out shortly after midnight, wrapped in a blanket, with her pajamas and wellies on (the wellies were for the annual walk to the pub the following day). There were a few sun loungers in the garden and Clara climbed on the closest one and lied down. As Clara now had friends in the Wizarding World, she'd had to inform them that she was in a muggle house for Christmas, and random owls knocking on the door would be rather confusing. So she'd said if they wanted to give her anything either do it before she went or at midnight on Christmas. Minutes after she'd lied down a tawny owl approached her with a parcel. She took it, along with the note attached and let it fly away. She had received a few presents so far, from Scorpius, Louis, Eliza and Poppy. This particular parcel was from Al. She ran inside quickly and placed it under the tree, skillfully dodging the sleeping children.

About an hour later her mum came down, wrapped in a blanket holding a box of chocolates.

"Hi, did I miss much?" Louisa asked as she lied down next to her daughter and handed the box over.

"Nah. What took you so long?" Clara asked as she ate a peppermint cream.

"Grandma wasn't very tired, so it took her ages to sleep, and I didn't't want to wake her up again," her mum answered, "Any owls yet?"

"Al's one came," Clara answered. They sat their quietly for a while, Louisa keeping the tradition up by going into a long speech about Polaris, the north star. At about two Louisa started yawning and decided she should probably get some sleep. Clara stayed though watching the world go by, deep in thought. Her eyes were drifting off slowly until she heard the creak of the door, and she jolted round to see her uncle looking rather bemused, but holding two cups of tea.

"What are you doing out here it's about three in the morning, Christmas Morning?" Rory asked as he sat down, handing her a steaming mug.

"I always come out here on Christmas Eve night, Mum comes out too. She went back in about an hour or so ago," Clara answered as she took a big sip, then realizing it was a mistake, as it was too hot. She set it down on the ground.

"Oh, I was just not sleeping, and I looked out the window and found you lying down, and thought maybe it's not that cold. What are you expecting for Christmas? Lou said you made a pretty sizeable list," Rory asked as he too took a sip, because it wasn't too hot for him.

"Umm, well just some stuff for school, not much," Clara lied, she couldn't't say she wanted a new broom and an owl; it would sound a little odd.

"Oh, I hope we got you the right stuff. It was all from the list so…" Rory answered. They chatted for a bit then Rory went in; Clara still stayed out but drifted off to sleep. She woke up at eight, the sun still quite low in the sky. She walked back into the house to find all the kids awake and Amy.

"Morning! Merry Christmas! Tea?" Amy said in her sweet Scottish accent. Clara nodded sleepily, and went to sit on the sofa, among her cousins, who were watching some Christmas movie. A few hours later everyone was sat down in the living room, hot drinks in hand, children beyond excitement.

"Right three presents before breakfast, the rest afterwards. Three, two, one," Matthew said. The kids immediately went for the biggest ones with their name on. Clara had received a large parcel from Rose's owl an hour after Rory had left the previous night. Clara didn't't open the presents from her friends at school because there was a high chance that they would be some form of Wizarding object. Clara opened two small presents from her mum and one from Rory and Amy. Clara got a gift card for the pet shop in Diagon Alley from Louisa (This was the present that excited her the most, as she really wanted an owl), Louisa also gave her a letter that said that she could buy a broom in Diagon Alley when they went the following week. Rory and Amy had got her a small notebook (she had asked for a nice notebook on her list) that had a darkish blue cover with eight raised panels on the front. They had said that one of their close friends used to have one.

A few minutes later they were back sat down at the table eating a full English breakfast, they had their crackers on Christmas breakfast, so now they were all telling awful jokes, and wearing paper hats. They all got dressed quickly and assembled in the living room again, for the rest of the presents. Clara opened Katie's present; it was ten bars of Cadbury's Caramel chocolate, her favorite. She smiled and gave her sister a large hug; she had given her eleven bars of her favorite chocolate, Milka chocolate. Matthew and his family weren't't that great at giving presents, they always gave Katie and Clara girly things like cosmetics; they hated that sort of thing. This year Clara had received a set of eyeshadows that she'd never use, but she said thank you and hugged her aunt and uncle anyway. Clara didn't't like opening all her presents at once, so she left one more of her mums, another of Rory and Amy's and her grandparents ones.

Soon after all the kids had finished playing with their toys, or what was left of them so far Jake, Matthew's youngest son had broken six already and it was only twelve thirty. They started watching more Christmas TV, and then they put their wellies on and started walking to the pub. They knew the people that worked there so they accommodated them nicely and they enjoyed their Christmas meal. The rest of the meal was funny and just like any other. After they had finished they walked back to the house, to watch Christmas day TV. Then the younger kids would go to bed, and the older ones and the adults would watch more TV then rather late they'd go to bed and they'd leave at about eleven.

They watched Arthur Christmas, which was the one movie they watched every year. They then watched Polar Express, a film no one liked but watched any way. After they watched the normal TV, they tried to get the younger ones to bed.

After that the kids unwillingly went to bed, and settled down. The adults went into the other room to watch a bit more TV. The next morning was a grim one, it had started to rain, and well it wasn't Christmas any more. It was a solemn and grumpy breakfast of leftovers. They said their goodbyes and Louisa, Clara and Katie left. It took them a few hours to get back home. They dumped their things and they slumped themselves down on the sofa. Clara got out the bag of presents she hadn't opened yet; Katie did the same. Louisa had given them both extra presents that were under the tree.

"Tea?" Louisa asked. The girls said yes as they assessed their piles, they opted for small ones, Clara's from Louis. Louis gave her a chocolate frog, Scorpius a broom servicing kit (she had mentioned that she was hopefully getting a broom for Christmas), Rose gave her a large number of books, Eliza gave her some movies, Poppy gave her a poster of a book she had said she liked, and Al gave her Quidditch books and a pack of Bertie Bott's every flavor beans. Also enclosed in Al's package was a present from his grandmother, it was a Weasley jumper. The Weasleys had explained about the jumpers that they got annually and like all their friends also received them, Al had said she would get one with a large 'C' on the front. There was also a large box of mince pies from their grandma. She received a new hoodie from her mum, and a box from Rory and Amy, which also contained a few Marvel comics, a fez (it was an inside joke) and an offer to have her round over the summer. After they'd finished opening the last of the presents they watched some more TV.

The next day Louisa treated the girls with a trip to Diagon Alley, they flooed there in the morning. It was very busy, probably because people got vouchers and things for Christmas. The first stop was the Owl emporium where Clara brought an owl with her Christmas gift card.

"What you gonna call him?" Katie asked as they walked over to the broom shop.

"Umm…I don't know. Well I've got Moira so maybe Charles?" Clara answered after a few moments.

"Ooh! That's nice, if I had an owl, I'd call her Lucy," Katie said as they walked into the Quidditch supplies shop.

"So which one do you want Clara?" Louisa said as they surveyed the brooms.

"Don't know," she answered.

"Shall I ask someone?" Louisa said as she walked up to a witch wearing Quidditch robes who worked in the shop. Fifteen minutes later they walked out back into the street with a Firebolt 7. Clara was now smiling sheepishly as they walked to the supply store where she got some more quills and parchment.

She spent the next few days madly sending letters to her friends, thanking them for presents and things. They too were excited by the fact that she now had her own owl, so that they could send letters and things to each other easily. All her friends together had decided that they'd wear their Weasley Jumpers to the party. She was getting rather excited by the prospect of seeing her friends from school again, as great as Will and Georgie were, they weren't't magical, and so she couldn't't talk about the Wizarding World or worry about her dad.

Soon she found herself on the doorstep of the burrow, with presents and overnight bags and a large thick woolly jumper on. Katie had a very confident look on her face, she always looked very confident, but Clara knew behind it all she was insecure. Louisa looked quite worried, but she had usual clothes, dungarees, blue and white striped top and her mid length curly brown hair in a ponytail.

"Mum, its fine they're nice people," Clara reassured her mum as they rang the doorbell. It rang jingle bells, even though it was a little time after Christmas. Seconds later a fresh faced red-haired woman answered the door, and they all recognized her instantly as Ginny Weasley.

"Hello, nice to see you. Come on in, there's a few people here already you're not late don't worry," Ginny said as she ushered them in through the door. Upon entering they saw quite a few people chatting, holding drinks. She took their bags and showed them into a room on the left where the rest of the children were. There was still a Christmas tree up in the corner and fairy lights around the room. James, Molly, Fred, Dominique, Victoire (who was currently sitting on top of Teddy) and Neville Longbottoms eldest daughter Francesca were sitting on the sofa rather squished), his next youngest daughter Alice was sat on the floor. Al, Rose and Louis were sat by the coffee table on the other side.

"Sup?" Louis said as he drank his pumpkin juice.

"Don't…do 'that' again," Al said as he shook his head.

"Right… well nothing much. Where's the pumpkin juice?" Clara said as she took off her coat.

"Over there. How was your Christmas then?" Al said as he gestured to where Molly was sat. Clara grabbed a glass and sat back down.

"Fine, you know family gathering. What about you? Where are the others?" Clara said as she grabbed a mince pie.

"Great but busy you know. Poppy was in Wales so she may be a while. I have no clue where Scorpius is he usually is never late but you know maybe it's Bella. Lorcan and Lysander should be here in a sec as well. Chris Wood is also coming so is Lewis, who is in our dorm but I have no clue where they are. John was also supposed to come but he isn't anymore," Al said as he looked through the door, sort of waiting for them to suddenly walk through the door.

"Who's Bella?" Clara said.

"Younger Sister. You didn't't know he had one?" Louis asked.

"Nope, never mentioned it. What's she like?" Clara answered slightly worried by the fact that he never mentioned it to her.

"I think she's what six now, aww she's really cute," Rose said.

"K. So what are we like doing?" Clara asked.

"Parents are chatting, we will have to like mingle with them when the rest arrive though," Al said as he stood up and Chris walked in.

"Hey! Happy New Year!" Chris said as he hugged them, got a glass of pumpkin juice and sat back down.

"Do you want to play a game till the others come? Monopoly?" Al asked as he walked over to a big chest and opened it up.

"No way, it's too long," Clara protested as she walked over to the cabinet and assessed the collection.

"Cluedo?" Al asked as the others shook their heads.

"Well there is charades but that kind of sucks," Clara said, "Ugh! Guess its Monopoly then."

"Oooh bagsy the dog," Lewis said as he walked in.

"Oh hey! Well actually this is a like Wizarding version so there isn't a dog. There is a Thestral though," Al said as he opened the box up.

"Okay picks your pieces and I'll do the galleons," Al said as he grabbed the money bag. The others picked up the bag of pieces and grabbed one at random. Fifteen minutes after they had started playing the others arrived. They all packed the game away and went into the other room along with the rest of the kids. There were now quite a lot of adults in the other part of the Burrow.

"Right your dad is by the door talking to your mum, Clara's mum, Ginny and Harry. My dad is by the fireplace. Clara, Lorcan and Poppy go to the door and make sure he stays over there. Al, me and Lysander will go over to my dad. Chris, Louis and Lewis make sure that they don't go too near in general. But I think overall we should try to get them to speak to each other once but we need to be close when this happens so no one argues," Rose said to Scorpius.

"Rose it will be fine, stop worrying. How about we just talk over here and if there is an argument we come over?" Clara said.

"No but they could have a huge argument, we should just keep them away from each other," Rose said worried.

"It will be fine," Clara said as she shook Rose's shoulders.

"Rose its fine my mum talked to my dad about it earlier," Scorpius said.

"Fine, okay. Right okay," Rose said as she rubbed her forehead she shook her face and then smiled before turning back to Clara and Scorpius, "Right, Scor. Clara hasn't met or really heard about Bella yet, where is she?"

"Haven't you, sorry I didn't't mention it. She's over by my mum. Want to meet her?" Scorpius said as he walked to his mum Astoria.

"Hey, where's Bella?" Scorpius asked when seconds later his question was answered and he saw his little sister holding his dads hand and eating a mince pie.

"By dad," Astoria said, before realizing that Scorpius already knew, so she drifted off to speak to Hermione. Scorpius, Rose and Clara then walked over to Draco who was now getting Bella a drink from the table.

"Hi Bella," Scorpius said as he bent down to his little sister who didn't't really look much like him. She had wavy brown hair and green eyes like his mum, "There is someone I would like you to meet. This is Clara, and you have met Rose before haven't you. Say hello." The small girl instantly cowered behind her father's legs.

"Come on Bella say Hi," Draco said as he bent down as well, and shook her hand.

"Hello," A small voice peeped out.

"See that wasn't too hard was it," Draco said smiling, "She's a little shy as you can see."

"I love your dress Bella," Clara said.

"Thank you," Bella said smiling.

"Oh you haven't met our grandparents yet. My grandma gave you that jumper, remember. She was really excited to meet our friends," Rose said. They walked over to the big armchair in the next room where an elderly woman sat talking to her two eldest children, Bill and Charlie.

"Grandma this is Clara, and you know Scorpius obviously," Rose said.

"Oh hello dear. Oh you're wearing your jumper, how nice," Grandma Molly said.

"Hi Molly, haven't seen you in a while," Scorpius said.

"Oh it is nice to see you, how is Bella?" Molly asked.

"Great, she's with Dad now," Scorpius said, before the rest of their friends walked in.

"Oh I do hope to see her, she's eight now," Molly said before she excused herself a she saw Ginny on the other side of the room.

"What do you lot want to do?" Louis asked.

"Whatever, don't mind," Clara said shrugging, "Wait I'm just going to check Katie's okay. Give me a minute." She then rushed off to find Katie who was with Lily, Lucy, Hugo, Roxanne, Melody Longbottom, and her twin brother Oliver.

"Katie. Are you fine?" Clara said as she stood above her younger sister.

"Great, do you know where mum is though?" Katie asked as she stood up.

"Other room," Clara said as she walked back with Katie to the other room to join her friends again, "Right back now. What are we doing then?"

"Well we could all grab our things and go up to the tree house?" Al suggested.

"Sure I may just tell my mum though," Clara said as she walked over to her mum.

Ten minutes later they all climbed up the rope ladder to the large tree house.

"Woah this is so cool. When was it built?" Poppy asked as she put her rucksack down in the large hanging basket/ bag by the door.

"Well my uncles and my dad helped build it after they all found out that my dad and mum were having James. And he would be the fourth child in the family, so they thought it would be good if they had a place to go in family gatherings and stuff," Al said as he picked up the basket of food from the ground and climbed up the rope ladder.

"Oh okay, shall we lay out sleeping stuff?" Clara said.

"Sure, we should go in just before midnight for the countdown and stuff," Al said. They put their things down and sat on top of mats with blankets and the bowls of food in the middle, like they did at school.

"Your dad did what!" Lorcan exclaimed as he spluttered his drink.

"Well, it wasn't that bad the police didn't't take him. We did lose the car though and now I'm not allowed a new owl," Poppy said laughing.

"My parents have never done anything that crazy! The only thing I ever heard about them doing that broke the rules was the DADA club they formed during fifth year. Oh and they missed seventh year, but mum went back to finish it the next year," Rose said.

"My mum once broke into a park with my dad when she was younger apparently. But she won't tell me anything about it other than that," Clara said chuckling slightly.

"That's a good one; my parents aren't't breaking the rules kind of people. They do travelling and non-existent animals," Lysander said as he reached for some crisps.

"Anyone else got a funny story, we don't evidently?" Lorcan asked.

"Nada. Famous parents, not exciting…or funny," Al said glumly.

"A few years ago my parents, who played in different Quidditch teams, played a match against each other. My dad won and my mum didn't't speak to him for two weeks after that," Chris said chuckling; they all knew how competitive his parents were, as just about ten minutes earlier they had all been there when they saw that there was one mince pie left and they both fought over it.

"That's funny; well my dad is a wizard and also a metamorphmagus. Well when he was roommates with my mum, this was before she knew he was a wizard, he used to walk out the door and walk back in randomly looking like someone else. Once he changed to look exactly like her and mirrored what she said and did. She was very confused," Lewis said laughing.

"I always thought of how cool it would be to be a metamorphmagus," Al said airily, "Oh wouldn't it be funny if you changed to look like McGonagall and walked around giving house points and detentions all day." After they ahh'd'd at his comment, Alice popped her head up, she was in second-year but her birthday was in late august, so she might as well have been in their year.

"Just saying we are about to you know, get ready it's like quarter to," Alice said before she jumped off the ladder.

"Come on better go," Rose said as she made for the ladder followed by the rest of them. Inside everyone was in the main room, admitently very squished, for it wasn't that big. There were now a huge variety of sandwiches on the dining table along with rather a lot of cakes.

"Hey mum!" Clara said as she walked over to her mum who was currently talking to Ginny and Hermione.

"Hello Clara, what have you lot been up to?" Louisa asked as she put her arm around her daughter, Rose was now behind her and waving to her mum.

"Talking and a short game of monopoly," Clara answered, "Oh actually, please can you tell me what happened when you and dad broke into that park?"

"No! I am not telling you, go on back to your friends," Louisa said laughing as she gently pushed her back. Rose and Clara walked back to where the rest of her friends were, it was now five to midnight.

"Oh forgot to ask, you said you got a new broom for Christmas, what did you get?" Al asked, at the word broom Chris immediately came over.

"Firebolt 7, oh and I got an owl called Charles, but you know that already," Clara said.

"You got a Firebolt 7! You are being serious, that is the best broom around! My parents won't let me get one," Chris exclaimed.

"I really wanted a Firebolt 7; I have my dad's old Firebolt. But he said I get a new broom for my birthday, but that isn't until July," Al said rather sadly.

"My birthday isn't till August, but I did get all the things I needed for Christmas," Clara said.

"I'm twelve next month so maybe I will get the new Firebolt then, it is looking unlikely though," Chris said.

"I have only tried it out a few times in the field behind my house. I would've brought it with me but my mum said no. Wait, I could Floo home and get it tomorrow?" Clara said.

"That would be really cool. Ooh we could have a match tomorrow?" Al said very excited, "Wait I think it's almost midnight." Everyone was not staring at the clock (not the Weasley clock which now had rather a lot of handles all on home currently).

"10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1!" They all shouted rather loudly then cheered in the New Year.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hi sorry it has been so long, but here's the new chapter. I am going to try and keep my chapters shorter, but there are only two more chapter in this part of the story. There will be another three or so chapters on their fourth year, i will explain it in the a/n of the next chapter.**

After the New Year's party, in which a rather fantastic game of Quidditch was played, Clara only had a few more days until she had to go back to school; Katie went back the day after the party. Their mum went back on the second January, so for the last two days Clara was home alone and spent it searching the house for some clues about her father. She wouldn't ask her mum as she had seen that it was a touchy subject and wasn't all that keen on asking really many questions about it.

She started with the pile of photos that was by the sofa. Her mum had about six photo albums which were kept on the bookcase, they were just generic family sort of things, one for Louisa as a child with a few of their dad in as well, then the rest were holidays and when Katie and Clara were younger etc. The thing was that the photo albums hadn't been updated in years, but Louisa still printed some photos and there were rather a lot of discarded ones and some older ones, hence the pile.

Louisa always wrote on the back of the photos the dates and what was going on. Right at bottom of the pile there were the older photos which were taken in the earlier 2000s. She looked to find any of her father and her mother; soon after they had gotten together maybe it would give her some more information? Sadly however there weren't any photos that gave her anything , the only one remotely like what she was looking for was a polaroid picture taken in 2005 of Louisa laughing at a coffee shop with Matthew, her dad, who was sat next to her but all it said was 'Blue Coffee shop, 2005'.

She put all the photos back, apart from that one, and walked around the room thinking of what to do next. The only other place she could think of to find anything was in her mum's room, and she would feel weird rummaging through her room. She had no clue what to do, she didn't want to ask her mum, but she did want to know more. She tapped the photo slowly as she decided what to do. She looked around the room, the modern kitchen with a breakfast table on the right side next to the dining table and the large French window that showed the field that was their garden and the forest that lay behind that on the hill side.

She quickly wrote a note on the table in case anyone came home before she got back. She ran up the stairs put the photo in the secret box in her book shelf and got changed into her running stuff. She used to run all the time with Will and Georgie, but hadn't since she had been at Hogwarts, no one really did as Quidditch was the more popular sport by far. Her light blue trainers were downstairs. She ran back down the stairs, tying her hair into a pony tail. She grabbed her shoes that were by the door and sat down on the sofa and put them on. Seconds later there was rather a lot of loud noise and Scorpius tumbled out of the fireplace.

"Hey! What are you doing here? We got back to school the day after next," Clara said startled.

"I was really bored, what are you doing?" He said as he dusted the soot off his shirt.

"Going running, what you want to come with?" Clara joked as she put her foot on the coffee table, her mum would've been very annoyed if she'd' ve been there, and finished tying her shoelace, "Why don't you go bother Al?"

"Busy in London. His Dad's got a conference thingy, and he has to go. Lilly and James got out of it, they have a rota on who goes to the conferences and stuff," Scorpius said glumly as he sat down next to her and rested his head in his hands.

"What are your family doing?" Clara asked.

"Work and Bella is at school. So I am like super bored," Scorpius said.

"Well I have to go; you can come if you want to?" Clara asked as she stood up and tightened her pony tail for the third time; her hair was very frizzy and curly so it didn't like staying up.

"Ugh, no one else is free," Scorpius exclaimed as he jumped back up and put his hands in his pocket.

"Scor come on two days then we will all be back at school with heaps of homework and Quidditch to keep you busy. Say Hi to Bella from me; go on home I'll see you on the train," Clara said as she ushered him back into the fireplace. Scorpius stuck out his tongue before he shouted his address and was gone, in roaring green flames that rose from the grate beneath and worked the way up his body until the flames engulfed all of him and he would appear back in his home. Clara tutted before she opened the French window onto the patio, closed the door and run through the garden path and into the woods on the hill side.

The woods were very overgrown and the path unmarked in many places, that was why quite a few people got lost each year on walks through the forest. Clara had never got lost through them and unlike her family she had a good sense of direction which meant that she knew her way, unlike many others. The eeriness of the place was maybe why she liked it so much, the bows of the tree met over the path, so not too much sunlight reached the ground. She sometimes used to try and climb the trees with Will, Georgie was too scared to go up, she wasn't too warm to heights.

Clara kept running, the time climbing, her heart beating faster and faster, but she ran on. She loved running as she always imagined that she was running away from all the stuff that was making her stressed or angary, true she didn't have much to worry about as she was still a first-year, but still it was a great idea for her who did worry about things that she probably shouldn't. She was running away from her family, her dad, the guilt she felt for some reason, her friends at school, she was running away from everyone who cared. She was picking up rather a lot of speed way more than she would have done when she was forced to run at school. She kept on sprinting, a smile now curling the edge of her lips as the path became less visible and she jumped over fallen trees and logs. She knew that she would soon be at the edge of the forest and the path would then gradually go up. She could then see the break in the tree the light pushing through, and the green fields that lay beyond the woods. Yet when she got through she didn't stop, though she was out of breath. Eventually she slowed down stopping at a stile, she sat down to catch her breath chuckling as she saw how far she'd run. She could see her house from the hill side, and she pondered over what she'd been running from before she reluctantly walked back home.

Clara arrived with her mum and sister rather late to the train station on the 3rd January. She quickly said goodbye before rushing onto the train about a minute before it pulled away from the station. She quickly shoved her suitcase onto the rack outside the train door, along with her new broomstick. She quickly swung her rucksack back onto her back and walked down the carriages until she found her friend, who were already eating some sweets and laughing.

"There you are we were wondering where you'd got to," Rose said as she stood up and helped Clara put her bag onto the rack above their heads. The journey was a long one and they soon got bored so they all spread out, and went to a few different carriages. The train wasn't as busy as it had been at the start of the summer term due to the fact that some of the students stayed over the holidays. They had Christmas balls every other year now so quite a lot would stay over in those years, this year however wasn't one of those years.

They arrived back at school late in the afternoon, where they had a welcome back feast; morale was a lot lower than it had been the last term. Professor Kirk was sat in-between the headmistress and Professor Longbottom, he however was talking to neither of them, he looked really displeased with everything. Everyone else was chatting cheerfully at the teachers table; he looked like the odd bod as he looked like he was murdering his carrots as he speared them with great vigour. The students were talking rather loudly on the various adventures they had got up to during the holidays, well repeating them as most of them had sent letters to each other the afternoon after they had got back or earlier.

"Clara would you mind stopping?" Louis said a little sarcastically, Clara stopped humming but began tapping the table really loudly; a few people from slightly further up the table turned around and gave her menacing glares.

"I meant all forms of noise bar talking," Louis said, Clara quickly mumbled a sorry and stopped, and then the headmistress rose from her chair and the whole hall was silent. The talk was mainly about welcoming the students back to school, reminding them of the rules and stating on which days during the term would the Quidditch matches take place, along with the ones which weren't for the Quidditch trophy but just so all the teams could play everyone and lastly what the running totals were for the house cup. The students then rose and left the hall to go back to their dorms and prepare for the first day of lessons.

The next morning was a slow one,

"Come on get up now," Eliza shouted at Poppy as she tugged on her feet, as Poppy clung to the bed stand.

"Noooo! It's Saturday," Poppy shouted as she tightened her grip.

"Poppy its Monday and the first day of school. This is the last time I am telling you before we all just leave you here," Eliza said as she let go and then proceeded to yank the duvet of Poppy's bed.

"How many minutes do we have?" Clara asked with a grip in her mouth as she attempted to tie her hair up into a pony tail. Anna looked down at her watch,

"Uhh, about five minutes," She answered before she walked into the bathroom as Rose left it.

"Poppy you still aren't up?" Rose asked as she sat down on her bed, Poppy groaned as she hugged her pillow as she was very cold. She sighed heavily again before she begrudgingly got up and waited outside the bathroom door.

"I really want to get down quickly, Poppy and Anna do you mind is we go?" Clara asked as she sighed and put on her watch and glasses. Poppy shook her head and Anna shouted a garbled no. Clara, Rose and Eliza headed to the door, and walked through the common room, bumping into Molly who walked with them to the great hall. They walked down the aisle in the hall and Clara plopped herself down next to James and opposite Francesca Longbottom.

"Good Morning," Clara rang cheerfully as she poured herself some tea.

"Why are you so cheery it's before eight thirty on a Monday morning?" James answered.

"We have Dark Arts first with Kirk," Clara answered as she started buttering a piece of toast.

"Oh right, he's in awful mood just to warn you," James said as he turned towards the teachers table, but his eyes drifted off into the distance, he was preoccupied in his thoughts. Clara reluctantly looked to the professors table, where a very stern and displeased Professor Kirk sat, she groaned before turning back to her breakfast, which she began eating a lot more slowly. Rose noticed her new glumness after a while,

"What happened?" She asked as she finished her granola.

"Kirk is in an awful mood; oh he's going to end up giving us so much homework. It is only the first day back," Clara answered as she drank the dregs of her tea and sat absently for a while until she was one of the few left in the hall and Scorpius came over and said that she did need to go to lessons at some point. She sighed heavily before she reluctantly went to Defence against the dark arts.

Clara sat down next to Al at the front of the class a few minutes later, he swivelled round confused to where she had been and also if she had any clue where their teacher was.

"Where were you?" Al asked.

"Hall, I was hoping if I waited there long enough I wouldn't have to go to lessons. Scor eventually said that I actually had to come," Clara answered as she got her parchment and pencil case, "Where is Kirk anyway?"

"Beats me," Al said just as the door to the class room was swung open and Professor Kirk strided through the room, looking as though he was about to kill any one that said anything he didn't like, or anything for that matter.

"Page sixty- seven now. Gargoyles. Read now; write notes. Go!" Kirk said, well shouted, everyone was rather taken a back that he was being this stern. Although he looked stern normally he was a very nice, funny and good teacher. The whole class groaned as they got out their textbooks.

"No complaining or I am giving you a test next lesson," Kirk barked as he sat down on his desk. The children groaned again anyway to prove a point, as they flicked through the pages and the murmurs then died down.

"Professor, why are you in such a bad mood?" asked a particularly irritating girl in Slytherin called Elise, everyone immediately turned to her with a look that said what the heck do you think you're doing.

"Elise, if you say anything for the rest of the lesson I will deduct one hundred house points from Slytherin for every single word you say," Kirk answered very annoyed, everyone was rather taken aback by his sudden harshness, unlike anything he would usually do. Despite what he had just done Poppy put her hand up.

"But professor, wait before I say anything please don't kill me for asking you a question, why are you being so stern, what happened to the trailing conversations about Potatoes and crisps and the hypotheticals?" She asked rather boldly, the professors face kept its stern look as he crept his eyes away from the textbook page, Poppy looked very nervous for what he was about to do but then his face relaxed.

"You want to know why I am being slightly more stern than usual," He said as if he was trying sarcasm.

"Well yes," Poppy said as if what he had said was incredibly stupid.

"Ugh. It is too early for a long winded debate and story," He answered as he stretched his back.

"Come on like what else were you going to make us do this lesson, work?" Poppy said sarcastically.

"Poppy! Fine but only to stop you bugging me," The professor retorted.

"Thank you," Poppy answered as she relaxed and started leafing through her pencil case to grab a pen to doodle with.

"Right so its January now. Like not even a month ago it was acceptable to eat a large piece of chocolate every morning. You don't understand the hate I get at the teachers table for wanting to eat chocolate brooms for breakfast; you get frowned upon for not wanting porridge and coffee," He joked, " Well I just am always in such a generally awful mood during January now because there are like no fun holidays here. Christmas has been and gone, and that is the best holiday out of the year. I sing Christmas songs in like July, I have a lot of Christmas spirit-"

"July, are you serious Professor? Come on no songs till mid-November at least," Louis protested, he was matched with a lot of shouts when he said this.

"November, you serious Lou!" Al shouted to the boy sitting behind him.

"I think December at the least," Rose said who was met with an even bigger debate.

"December!" the majority of the class shouted.

"Well it is when we get advent calendars," Clara said.

"Right guys calm down I didn't really want too much of a debate," Kirk said over the shouts of his students, "Okay so back to me, well after Christmas we had new year, and like then the very next day it's the second of January, which is the most dull day of the year. And like the rest of the month is too annoying and dull. All of the fun celebrations are now like over and there is nothing to look forward to till I can stuff myself with chocolate in Easter. At least in China they have their New-Year and they have dragons. Why can't we have a holiday when we get dragons to come from the rest of Europe to here? Hey wait, Rose your uncle works with dragons doesn't he?"

"Yeah Uncle Charlie, and no I tried asking for one for my birthday and yes he said a firm no," Rose quickly answered.

"Well you could see if he wouldn't mind doing a presentation for us at some point later this year, and I could slip in that a dragon visiting would be much appreciated," the professor said as he tapped his pen onto his desk, " Right okay so yeah that's why I am so incredibly bored and annoyed this month. And no just because I explained what happened does not mean that you don't get homework before you ask Poppy."

Luckily though he didn't give them too much to do, as they already had been given so much by all their other teachers and it was only the first week. To the professors they had all the time in the world to do the homework, and it was not too early to start revising for the summer tests despite the fact that they were four months away.

Clara in all honesty felt swamped by the third week back, with the large amount of homework toppled with most evenings being spent on the Quidditch pitch, left her very little spare time to go to the library and look to see if she could find more about her father. As she didn't know much already about him but didn't want to ask her mum, but she didn't want to worry her friends or say anything to them about what she wanted to do, so she wanted to surreptitiously leave and go to the library the next Sunday evening.

Almost everyone in Gryffindor was sat in the common room on the third Sunday of the term; the first-years were mostly doing their homework incredibly slowly and groaning about how much they had. They got a large number of sharp looks from the elder years, especially seventh-years.

"I am so tired and done with this work," Eliza said as she rolled over on the floor bumping into Clara who was sat cross-legged leaning over a textbook and parchment. Clara didn't even notice as she was preoccupied in her work.

"Clara, earth the Clara!" Eliza said as she hauled herself up and clapped in front of Clara's face.

"What?" Clara said irritated.

"Geez, Clara," Eliza as she went back over to where she had been working.

"Right stop. I 'm going to the library alone, I just can't deal with all of you it is way too loud, and I am getting a headache," Clara exclaimed as she clumsily threw her things into her bag and left in a huff. She power walked all the way to the library, not even noticing when Scorpius said hi to her in the corridor. She knew exactly where she was going and didn't stop until she got there; the table next to the section she was looking for was luckily empty. She swung her bag down onto the table and walked along the bookshelf and hauled out three large books.

She had grabbed _Notable Wizards of the twentieth century_ , _Famous wizards, and which wizard 1950-1999._ She looked through the first one hopeful that she'd find that he was some great Auror or curse breaker, sadly though she didn't find anything. She checked the second one knowing though that he probably wouldn't be in there. She knew though he would have to be in the last one as it had the names of all the wizards alive during that time. She was so confused when she looked up the last name Lake and couldn't find any Michael. She checked six times before she realised that it just wasn't in there.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello! Sorry it's been a while, I've been submerged in school work, literally the books are piling on top of this chapter is really short but there is one more in this part of the story. After chapter ten I am going to skip to 4th year, where basically everyone is still friends and stuff. I will explain in the story and will do a few flashbacks I think. But yeah basically I don't see a point of writing 2nd and 3rd years becuase in my head not much happens, But yeah, I hope you like this chapter please favourite and review! :)**

Clara threw her stuff down in anger on the bed, as soon as she got back to her dorm. Molly who had been walking down the stairs when Clara started screaming, and then sobbing. Molly knocked on the door, confused as to what was going on.

"Clara is that you? Are you okay?" Molly asked concerned.

"Yes, it's me. I'm fine! You can come in!" Clara answered as she cleaned herself up. Molly quietly closed the door and went and sat down on Clara's bed.

"You don't look okay I'll see if I can find Eliza, Poppy or Rose," Molly said as she handed Clara a tissue and left. Clara walked to the mirror and wiped her eyes; red and sore. Eliza walked in with Rose moments later, they rushed over immediately.

"Oh Clara! Are you okay?" Eliza asked as she hugged her friend.

"Come on what's wrong?" Rose asked as she put the kettle on top of the fire. It was a new addition to each room, put in by numerous requests.

"I'm fine, and just leave it, it doesn't matter," Clara said, her voice wavering slightly.

"You don't look fine. Just tell us why you're so annoyed or sad, we won't tell anyone," Eliza said handing Clara another tissue.

"Please just don't tell anyone else, especially Scor or Al. You know what they're like. Well I went to look for any information I could find about my dad in the library. But I couldn't find anything at all," Clara said, chewing her nails as she was worried, Rose told her to stop.

"Did you check the books on all the wizards' alive last century, or whatever?" Rose asked.

"Course I did. But he wasn't there, so were my mum and McGonagall wrong, was my dad just a muggle? Like I know for a fact that his name before marriage was defiantly Lake, I am certain of that. My mum's maiden name I know was William's, my uncle is Rory Williams, my mum's sister. But when I looked in the book, under the name Lake, there was a Mitchell and a Max, but no Matthew. I checked the list loads of times, and then in loads of the other books as well, I was exceptionally thorough, but his name just wasn't there. God. I'm just so worried and confused; I don't know what to think. Am I just being all wrong? When he died we could see no cause, they did the post-mortem and found nothing. The day before he died he left home for work and he just didn't come home. We all thought he had run away, but then we saw him on the news. My mum was distraught when she saw him, and so sad when we could see no reason for his death. When I found out that I was a witch I was so pleased and just thought maybe this had something to do with his death. I looked a lot in my first week here and found out about the unforgivable curses. I immediately presumed that he had been killed by a wizard or witch, I think it's the killing curse. So If he had links to wizards or witches, he must be a wizard? Mustn't he? But I just don't know what to think then as he wasn't there at all," Clara explained still sobbing in parts; Eliza and Rose looked so shocked.

"Clara I'm so sorry but you really shouldn't worry. I know that he's your father but just focus on school. I am sure neither of them was lying to you, and if you think he was killed like that it is unlikely some witch or wizard went around and killed a random muggle. He must have gone into hiding or something in the second war, loads of kids did. Clara I just advise leaving it, and if you really want to find out what happened ask your mum. Please don't worry about it, just leave it at what you know already. Okay come on go have a shower and clean up, and then we'll go to dinner. We won't talk about this again if you don't want to and we defiantly won't tell anyone," Rose said, Clara groaned but agreed that that was the best option, Eliza and Rose hugged her and got up to leave.

"Oh and Clara I think Charles is looking for you something to do with Catherine I think," Eliza said as they left. Clara nodded and headed for the bathroom.

* * *

Clara found Charles later that evening after dinner.

"Ahh, Clara. I presume Eliza told you I needed to speak to you," Charles said and Clara nodded, "Well I need to ask something of you, it is rather big and I know that you don't want to do anything other than just the practices, but Catherine can't be the seeker anymore."

"Right, okay. What's wrong with Cat?" Clara asked.

"Well Cat thought it was a neat idea to do a stupid prank with her friends. So basically they did a Weasley in a Dark arts lesson, and Kirk, despite him finding the fireworks hilarious, he had to ban her and the rest of them from Quidditch. I know it's asking a lot but can you play seeker for the rest of the year. You are an excellent player, and everyone knows it. There is no one else who can do it as well as you can. If you want me to ask everyone on the team whether you are good enough then fine because I will get them to tell you that. Please can you do it, please, please, I will beg if I have to. Please be seeker?" Charles asked, now begging on his knees. Clara laughed and nodded.

"Oh course I will but I will need practice I suck you know," Clara said.

"Nah ya don't," Charles said as he scuffed Clara's hair and walked up to his friends in the common room.

* * *

Clara after that just submerged herself in her school work and Quidditch. She always kept in her mind what Rose had said to her, she didn't want to ask her mum, worried she'd get upset or something. Months passed quickly, with her not really worrying about it much anymore about her dad. The snow cleared, the lake thawed, the trees grew lovely fresh leaves and the winter gave way to a fresh and bright spring. The Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw passed, Ravenclaw winning, meaning that Gryffindor would face Ravenclaw in the final match for the Quidditch cup. Ravenclaw won by a huge way, Hufflepuff didn't mind though, it's not like they never tried in Quidditch it's just that they never minded the outcome, always the ones that could see the joy and happiness in everything, even sorrows. Hufflepuff even had a party in their common room; they had undying spirit in everything. But even they were low on morale now; there was a growing threat of uncaught death eaters. Even though in the second war Voldemort had died 19 years before, there had always been a threat since then and although most of the death eaters had been killed there was a portion which hadn't been taken in by the Ministry. But now the threat was worsening apparently. Al's dad had sent a letter to him saying not to worry but that the Auroras were on it and ready. Some weren't worried about it though but morale was still low as exams were coming soon and they still stood in the way of the summer. Many were just hoping for a birthday to come soon. Since winter had come Scorpius, Lorcan and Lysander had all had theirs. Chris and Lewis had both had theirs in the last week of the Christmas holidays.

Eliza and Rose had their birthdays within a week of each other. So all their friends were arranging a big party.

Clara slumped herself down on the sofa, along with Al and Poppy. They had just spent the whole Sunday with Scorpius, Lorcan, Lysander, Chris, Lewis and John, making some banners for the party next week.

"Hey! What you been up to?" Eliza asked, Clara tapped the side of her nose, Eliza's face fell slightly.

"It's about me and Roses' birthday isn't it," Eliza said.

"No!" Clara lied, very badly.

"Well I'm not saying anything at all but I love Pumpkin Poppy seed cake and Rose loves Red velvet. But I'm not saying anything," Eliza said absentmindedly as she got up and went to her dorm.

They had the party the following Saturday afternoon, they had loads of banners and pumpkin and poppy seed cake of Eliza and a red velvet one for Rose, both in the shape of books. They had loads of food and just played games and chatted way into Sunday morning in the Room of requirement. It was nice having something like that given the state of things.

They all slept in the room, woke up very tired and lounged around doing homework the rest of the Sunday. They all had such a fun time that day, as did Eliz and Rose expesically. Well apart from the falling asleep in lessons on the Monday due to being so tired.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hello, I don't think this is very good but I thought I hadn't updated in ages and I was in the writing mood so I thought why not. I will say again what will happen in the next chapters, but basically I am skipping to fourth year and everything is the same friendship wise and such. I will put in flash backs and anything else if it needs explaining. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :)**

"No you are so wrong! That can't possibly be right! Shove of it James your lying!" Rose shouted at James over the table, with some orange juice in hand that she looked very ready to spill.

"Well deal with it _Rosie_ ," James mocked, as he cut his fried egg with a smirk across his face.

"Ugh, I can't believe you. You are utterly ridiculous!" Rose exclaimed just as Eliza noticed she was about to chuck her orange juice into her cousins face, so she made a big act of removing it from Rose's hand, "Oh and it's just Rose, no ie at the end just a simple e. Rose, simple as that. You've known me all my life, even for you, with your tiny intellect; a four letter name shouldn't be too hard."

James proceeded to stick out his tongue while his family and friends laughed at him, so he turned round to a girl sitting on his other side called Meggie.

"So what are you lot up to today then," Rose asked Al, still smug from embarrassing her elder cousin.

"Training," Al answered with a glum and dull expression, "actually we need to go now or Charles will bite our heads off, and as much as I hate the headaches I get from getting hit by a Quaffle, I don't think it's worth losing my head. Clara and Chris are you ready, we need to go?"

"Yeah, let's go," Chris answered as he finished chewing his cereal and got up out of the bench, "See you losers later, oh and can you tell Lorcan that I need to speak to him at some point."

"Yeah sure, see you later, oh and fly well!" Rose called after them, "shouldn't you be going as well, _Jamie_."

Rose said smugly as she looked over to her cousin as he stuck out his tongue at her and left the table.

"See you later Rosie," James called as he left the hall with a smirk pulled across his face, making about half the girls in his year blush.

"He is unbelievable," Rose said to Eliza who handed her orange juice back to her, with caution, "What do you think I'd do with the orange juice now, pour it on your head? I don't think I hate you that much Eliza, though I wouldn't mind chucking it at Louis."

Eliza laughed as she took the glass back and went upstairs, along with Rose and Poppy to study for the end of years.

* * *

"So match play today, as we have the big match in a matter of weeks. And we really need to defend our title, I really don't want to see Ravenclaw smug, In my near seven years at Hogwarts we have lost once and that was in first year, and they were just so smug for the whole of the next year. Now into formation and on my whistle go!" Charles barked from where he was stood on the Quidditch pitch, standing next to his hovering broom. He then let the balls out of the chest and blew his whistle, and on that mark they all flew off.

Al raced off and caught the Quaffle and sped off with it to the goal post. A bludger headed towards him, so he threw the ball to his brother, behind him. James caught it and chucked it at the lowest goal post; Chris however knocked it out of the way. Al caught it again and flew bolt upwards as a bludger raced behind him, but the beaters were preoccupied with the other bludger which was targeted at Clara now, it was chasing him around the pitch, Clara was out of control. Al kept rocketing upwards towards the skies of grey. The bludger was still on his tail and accelerating, so Al was also increasing in speed, but screeching down to his team mates. The rest of them on the pitch were watching Clara circle madly around the pitch being chased by the other bludger. Fred eventually managed to whack the bludger chasing her far into the forbidden forest.

"Al what are you doing?" Charles shouted as he watched him carry on flying straight into the sky.

"I can't go down the bludger will hit me! I'll be knocked off and fall!" he shouted back, "What do I do? The bludger shouldn't be doing this!"

"I know! The bludger's must be jinxed, the other one chased Clara! Fred had to whack it into the forest! Try turning back down!" Charles yelled, Al then tried to turn down but instead it chased and caught up whacking his arm, he then had to turn and go straight up, "Right well I hope you are fine but we'll fix it when you get back down, we need to get you off the broom."

"I know! I am trying to not think about the awful pain in my arm currently!" Al yelled back.

"Right I know what to do! All of you grab your wands and all of you use the levitation spell to lift him off and float him back down, as the broom should carry on going!" Clara yelled as she fumbled in her boot and grabbed her wand, "Right Now!"

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" They all shouted in unison as they all swished and flicked their wands, which were pointed up to their team mate. Al then floated off him broom and gracefully swooped back down to the pitch. They then lowered their wands and he then fell down with a large thud. They made apologies and helped him up, and then they all looked up together at where the bludger was flying off into the murky grey clouds beyond their view. Clara immediately went and hugged her best friend before he winced and a few tears trickled down his face.

"Oh arm right sorry, it looks broken so I think this should do the work. _Brakium Emendo_!" Clara said as she reeled back and pointed her wand at his arm. He prodded it and then started moving it without any pain.

"Thanks, well that was fun," Al said chuckling as they then went and congregated in a sheltered view box on the pitch, it was not raining.

"You shouldn't be joking about something like that. It was sabotage, and someone got you hurt and if it wasn't for Clara thinking so quickly you could have been hurt a hell of a lot more," Charles said as he looked out on to the pitch meaningfully.

"Who'd ever want to do that?" Clara asked as she chewed at her nails.

"Well it can't be any of the other Quidditch Captains, or teams for that matter. I know all of them really well. Adrianna is the Quidditch captain for Ravenclaw, she's my girlfriend and I know her so well she'd never do that, neither would Harry for Slytherin or Lucy for Hufflepuff, they know how to play fairly, and I am quite certain sabotage doesn't constitute fair in their books. It's not in any of their natures. So I guess we'll have to speak to McGonagall, but regardless of that I need to know before hand; it there anyone you know who hates either of your guts or has a grudge against you or something. Well in fact as it was bludger's it must have been aimed at the whole team," Charles asked.

"No, I can't really think of anything, I guess we should just go to McGonagall," Al said as he followed Charles out of the view box into the pouring rain.

"Wait!" Chris and Clara called in unison; Clara motioned for Christ to carry on talking.

"What about Violet?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, but she may hate us, but really not this much," Al answered before they continued to walk back towards the castle again.

* * *

"So you have now lost your broom then Potter?" McGonagall asked as she put down her cup and saucer.

"Yes, but that doesn't really matter, I can just ask a friend or something to borrow theirs. I don't really mind what happened, I'm fine now, my arms no longer broken, I don't really mind" Al answered, the rest of the team rolled their eyes when he said he didn't mind. He was too modest.

"Well frankly Potter I don't care for your modesty. We need to find out who did this. You were right they must have been jinxed, and now we have to discover who. I will talk to the staff and everyone at dinner tonight if necessary. Now I just want to ask is there anyone at all who you think may have done this?" The headmistress asked.

"Well we think it may be Violet Herbert in Ravenclaw but Al doesn't seem to think it would be her, despite the fact she hates us lot; earlier this year she hexed me and Rose earlier this year," Clara replied.

"Regardless of whether or not Potter thinks she did it I will summon her to my office immediately. So now all of you I will make sure there is someone keeping guard at your next practice, and if it's her I will inform you later and I assure you I will put her in detention. Now please return back to the Gryffindor tower," She answered. They then all traipsed back to the Gryffindor tower.

That evening at dinner Professor McGonagall announced that someone had jinxed the bludger's in Gryffindors Quidditch practice that morning.

"The bludger's chased two first- years in the team, injuring one of them but luckily it was fixed. I would like to say now that I have discovered who did this, I will not mention their name so as not to add to the embarrassment. They have received Friday and Saturday Evening detentions for the remainder of the term, I have told you this as a warning to anyone who ever tries to sabotage Quidditch. The punishments will be very severe as you are aware. Now good luck in forth coming exams and the last Quidditch match of the year. Thank you, you may leave," McGonagall said.

* * *

For the next few weeks all the teachers gave all the students bucket loads of homework, in preparation for the last exams of the year. The seventh years had their Newts which were the most important tests in all seven years of Hogwarts and pretty much decided their careers. The fifth years also had Owls which were a pretty big deal as well. Everyone else just had normal tests.

"So in total how many do we actual have to do? And what is the least amount of revision I can get away with?" Louis asked Rose as he dumped all of his books on the floor, and slumped down on a cushion.

"Well that's not a good attitude to have, but regardless of that we have seven subjects and two tests in some of them, on top of that we have a test on flying. So in total we eleven I believe. And you are being ridiculous with the other question; you should do as much revision as you can. If you don't I'll send a letter to your parents, you know how they'd react," Rose said not looking up from her textbook.

"Ugh! This is stupid, why can't we just run away or something, and never see school again. Wouldn't that be just like 100% better," Louis said as he reluctantly opened his book, but doing it all dramatically.

"I agree," Lorcan said laughing, " I hate revision so much."

Over the next week the exams started, no one was happy, but luckily all the house elves made a huge effort to make the food really nice for the students. They made all the teachers food a little bit worse; in their defence the teachers had given them the tests which caused a lot of stress.

"What have we got today then?" Al asked over the breakfast table; today it was pancakes with maple syrup and bacon.

"Well as it's the last day, we only have two. One in an hour and another an hour after lunch, it's the last DADA test, which is practical and the practical potions tests. After that we are off the hook so we have the Quidditch match on Saturday and then three more days till we go home for eight weeks," Eliza answered as she finished her tea.

"I'm going to go and revise in the Room of requirement for a bit anyone coming?" Clara asked as she got out of the bench.

"Yeah sure, I'll go ask Lorcan, Lysander and Scor if that's okay?" Al said as he finished chewing and lined up his cutlery.

"Yep sure, shall we all go down for fifteen minutes before it should start? Oh and rember don't forget your wands, I expect the transfiguration practical was hard for Lottie without her wand, well I guess it wasn't her fault that her brother stole it though. Anyway see you later," Clara said as she walked down the aisle.

When all the tests were done all the houses had a party in their common rooms, the Hufflepuffs obviously had the best one of all down to their awesome friendliness and having their tower next to the kitchens, where they had a good relationship with the house elves so they got loads of food from them.

On the next morning everyone walked down to the Quidditch pitch for the final match of the year which would decide who won the Quidditch match and, if they had enough points, who won the house competition for that year.

"Nervous?" Poppy asked Chris as they walked down the path.

"No," Chis said definitively.

"You are such a bad liar you know," Poppy said chuckling slightly.

"No I'm not," Chris said nervously.

"Okay then did you like the present the cousin you hate got you?" Poppy asked with her arms crossed.

"Yeah of course," Chris scoffed with an awful laugh.

"Yeah so luminous pink nail varnish is really you?" Poppy said laughing.

"You know for you Chris a light purple would look great on your nails you know," Eliza said as they reached the tent where the Gryffindor team congregated.

"Good Luck" They all said in unison to Chris, Clara and Al.

"On my whistle go!" Madame Blackwood shouted. The two teams readied themselves and mounted their brooms, before flying into formation.

"Good Luck guys, remember we need at least 20 points before Clara catches the snitch," Charles shouted to his team mates. Madame Blackwood blew the whistle and they all set off. James caught the Quaffle and raced with it to the goalpost, throwing it in the middle one. The keeper tried to dive and catch it but was unsuccessful and so Gryffindor earned 10 points. Ravenclaw now had possession they attempted to throw it into the highest goal post, but Chris knocked it away with the back of his broom.

Ten minutes later it was 50: 20 to Gryffindor, but there was no sign of the snitch. Clara hovered above the pitch keeping a watchful eye on the pitch. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of silver at the bottom of corner of the pitch. She immediately lept off and sped for the corner, the other seeker was hot on her tail. The snitch rose quickly and Clara followed it bolt upright; she reached out her hand to catch it, but it was too far away. The other seeker accelerated but Clara was already too far ahead. She reached out her hand again and her fingers fumbled around the small ball. The crowd erupted in cheers, the players flew back down and landed softly on the pitch and all the Gryffindors rushed onto the pitch lifting Clara up as she received the cup and held it high above her head.

A few days later, on the last feast before the train would depart and take them all back home, until they would return in September, the headmistress announced who had won the house competition.

"Without the added points of the Quidditch cup, Ravenclaw was in the lead, but after the match it had rearranged a little bit. In 4th place with 11,354 points is Hufflepuff," McGonagall announced over the rumble of hands banging on the table. The Hufflepuff table erupted in cheers, "In 3rd place is Slytherin with 12,176 points." They sighed very loudly, the other two houses started banging on the tables again, so much that Professor Longbottom had to tell them to be quiet.

"As you will know who came where if I tell you who came second I will tell you right out who came first, but be aware there were only 30 points in it. So in first place with 13,387 points is Gryffindor," McGonagall continued, the Gryffindor table erupted in cheers much to the annoyance of Ravenclaw who now all had glum expressions on their faces, "Now I would like to say well done to all of you on an excellent year. It has been very successful, and you will all receive you test scores in the post next week. Thank you and I'll see you back in September."


	11. Chapter 11- Rumors

**A/N: Happy New Year! And here is the first chapter of fourth year, I didn't see a point in putting it as a new story so I have just carried it on. Please Review and Favourite :)Have a good year!**

"Right, Clara and Katie write to me at least once this year. Is that okay?" Louisa said as she put Clara's owl Charles on the trolley.

"Yes, and we'll be fine. Stop worrying, we're old enough now, I'm 13 now and Clara's 14, were basically adults now," Katie said as she hugged her mum.

"Well that's not true at all!" Louisa said as she tried to hug Clara who reeled away as she noticed Al, James and Lily getting onto the train.

"Bye then!" Katie and Clara shouted back as they got onto the train.

"Bye!" Louisa called back as she waved, "Wait Clara!"

"What?" Clara said as she popped her head out of the door.

"Oh Rory and Amy needed to speak to you, about something important apparently, I totally forgot. They said to send a letter when you got to school, don't get Charles to send it to their house obviously, speak to one of your friends and get their parents to send it I suggest. Bye! Have a good term!" Louisa said, Clara nodded before heading down the crowded corridor. She pushed her way through the crowds, saying sorry as she barged her way through.

Clara stopped when she reached the compartment at the end of the last corridor. She dumped her rucksack on the shelf and sat down with Moira on her lap.

"Hello!" she said cheerily.

"What took you so long?" Lorcan asked quickly as he closed the quibbler, and the train jolted as it left the station, they all waved through the window at their family before they were too far away and could only see London.

"No, hello Clara how are you? Did you have nice last few days of your holidays before you'd be stuck with us for the next term? Or how's your mum and sister? Or even how are you?" Clara said as she set Moira down on Scorpius' lap, he looked bewildered as the cat purred and then preceded to jump onto his head, and Clara reached for something in her rucksack.

"No we just needed all of us as were going to play exploding snap and we haven't got enough players. You are only a number and you're late," Lorcan said before he got the cards out of his bag. He put them down and then took Moira off Scorpius' head. Scorpius' stifled thanks, and then checked that Moira still wasn't perched on his head.

"Still afraid of her then Scor" Clara asked as she took Moira off Lorcan.

"No," Scorpius lied.

"Yeah the bewildered look on your face shows just how much you like my cat. Well anyway, how were your last few days of the holidays?" Clara asked.

"Well I have no clue I stayed in bed for the majority of it. Hoping that if I stayed in bed school wouldn't happen," Louis answered smiling as he leaned back and ruffled his messy hair.

"I doubt Bill or Fleur were too pleased with you for that," Lysander said laughing, "Us on the other hand were forced into Wales. It was so boring, mum and dad had errands to run. I wish I'd stayed in bed, but then again I think dad would have forced me on an adventure weekend to look for a new creature for his book, and I'd rather not do that."

"Surely going somewhere interesting would be fun?" Rose asked.

"Well not if you have to keep silent and hide in forests for two days straight, it is awful. We used to like it but now it's just same old," Lorcan answered.

"All I got to do was sit alone in the house for four days because mum and dad had to work. Hugo annoyed me so much by the end, it was so much effort not to jinx him. He kept pestering me to secretly buy him some stupid muggle object, his obsession is getting out of hand, Dad said yesterday that he was considering getting him a laptop or something, Mum immediately said a definitive no so it must have been bad," Rose said.

"Your mum was right as well, you would lose your mind with Hugo having a laptop," Eliza said as the train went out of the London suburbs and into the rich English countryside. They quietened down and started playing exploding snap after a while, which come to think of it wasn't any quieter.

"Right I'm bored out of my mind, and my stomach had decided to make whale noises. So I'm going to find the food trolley. Anyone want to come?" Clara asked as she got up and everyone looked up from what they were doing.

"Sure I'll come," Al said as he sat down his book, a recommendation for Rose and Clara obviously, and got up. They then headed to the left, the wrong direction; the trolley always came from the right, as it went through the prefects and teachers corridor first. Some of them in the compartment looked a little bit confused; Eliza and Louis on the other hand were smiling.

"They've gone the wrong way haven't they" Poppy asked, "Wait a sec, Louis and Eliza why are you wearing the largest smiles known to man?" They burst out laughing.

"Come on what it is?" Scorpius asked.

"You know Louis, If they don't know for themselves, I really don't think there is much point in telling them then. What do you think?" Eliza mocked as she laughed.

"Yeah there is no point, they don't see it," Louis said still laughing.

"Oh for Merlin's sake just tell us," Lorcan said as he tried to hit Eliza with his quibbler.

"Fine! Fine! Well basically, those two so like each other and –"Eliza started.

"Ew no that's my best friend and my cousin. No. Never. No. Nope-"Rose said.

"Oh please just let me speak Rose. And you can't really speak as you and Scor so plainly like each other and he's Al's best friend and Al's your cousin. Well as I was-"Eliza said Rose and Scorpius looked really shocked.

"That is not true!" They exclaimed in unison.

"Oh shove off you two we have all seen the way you look at each other, so for god's sake at least make an effort and go to Hogsmeade together," Poppy said.

"Right can I please get on with what I was saying? Well Al and Clara haven't got such a bad memory that they don't know which way the train is going it always comes from the left. They know their left and right, so they knew they were going the wrong way. They'll come back after they've taken the time to kiss each other in an empty compartment," Eliza said, this time everyone kept quiet.

"I really doubt that they've gone to go kissing El," Louis said.

"No they have totally gone and snogged Lou!" Eliza said, she may or may not have been exaggerated.

"Eliza they will have just forgot the way or something, I seriously doubt that Al and Clara are snogging in a compartment. We'll go and find them if the food trolley comes and they're still not back," Rose said.

"They so totally are," Eliza muttered as she went back to her book.

"El!" Louis said. About ten minutes later the food trolley went past and Clara and Al still weren't back. They decided that Eliza and Louis should go looking for them; they left after eating rather a lot of sweets and a pumpkin pasty.

"So where do you think they'll be then major detective Eliza?" Louis asked as they walked to the right.

"Major Detective!" They both said in unison as they did a salute together, they then burst out laughing. It was a weird thing they did when anyone said anything like lieutenant, major, general etc.

"Anywhere this way and I'm not a detective thanks very much," Eliza said.

"If they aren't here this way will we go back or search the other way?" Louis asked, as they checked in another compartment.

"I guess we just go back they have to be on the train somewhere," Eliza answered; they kept checking all the compartments on the way.

"Well they don't really seem to be here, unless they have managed to fit themselves on the luggage rack, but somehow I doubt that is very likely," Louis said, Eliza laughed. They reached the last corridor of the train, and in the second compartment they saw Albus and Clara, who were banging really loud on the glass and shouting very loud, but clearly there was a silencing spell on the glass as Eliza and Louis could hear nothing. They tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.

"We'll get you out; it must've been locked with magic because alohamora won't work. We need a key; please can you use your wand or something to tell us where it may be?" Eliza asked as she put her wand away and tried the door again. Using a torch spell Clara spelled out a T before Louis felt on top of the door frame and found a key. He used it on the door handle and it clicked as he turned it and the door swung ajar.

"What the hell happened to you?" Eliza asked after she'd hugged her friend.

"Guess who you think it was?" Al asked as he put his hands in his pockets.

"Let me think: Violet?" Louis said as they left and started walking back to their compartment.

"You bet ya! Well we went the wrong way to go look for food; we had realised this and as we were walking back to the other way Violet stopped us with Veronica as well. And you can well see what happened next, she locked us in the compartment and used a silencing spell on the glass," Clara said as they reached their corridor.

"Ugh she really is horrible!" Eliza said as they entered their compartment, "Are you going to speak to Professor Longbottom?"

"I don't know we're fine aren't we?" Al said as he sat back down where he had sat before, over an hour ago.

"Al stop it, you remember what happened in first year you don't you. She broke your arm for god's sake, Al she locked us in a compartment this time. And in second year she tried to get you expelled. For merlin's sake I know you hate to grasp but seriously she is a massive bitch!" Clara argued.

"Language!" Everyone shouted in the compartment in unison, it resulted in a giant high five and a laughing fit.

"As I was saying you need to just tell the headmaster Al!" Clara repeated.

"No, I still don't think it's a brilliant idea," Al said leaning back into the seat, they were now only a few hours away from the school.

"She has got a point Al," Lorcan said, "but first please may you just explain what happened."

"Well Violet locked us in a compartment and used a silencing spell so that no one could hear us," Al explained.

"Well you do really need to speak to Longbottom Al. Clara is going to go on her own if you don't come, please you need to do it Al, " Scorpius said.

"Are you certain that I have to go?" Al asked again.

"Yes!" Rose exclaimed.

"Fine! As long as you stop your badgering but if she does something worse after this I blame you lot," Al said giving in.

"Al you idiot the point is that she'll be punished and not do it again," Rose said annoyed. He left it for the rest of the journey. An hour later they all got changed as it became dark and they eventually rolled up into the station.

After they had dropped their small bags of they got into a carriage and road up into the school out of Hogsmeade station. When they reached the entrance they all walked up the steps into the great hall where Lorcan, Lysander and Scorpius left to go to their separate tables.

"Well this should be a fun two hours, housing ceremony, singing and announcements all before we get to eat. And I'm starving, I am sorry in advance if I end up eating one of you. I may resort to cannibalism," Poppy said as she sat down next to Chris on the table opposite Molly and James.

"Hi! And you surely can't be that hungry Poppy," Molly said.

"Does anyone know anyone who's in first year this time?" Al asked.

"Nada," Rose said, everyone else shook their heads. A few minutes later the large doors to the great hall swung open and with Professor Kirk leading them, the confused and yet amazed first-years followed behind.

Around half an hour later Professor Longbottom stood up and made his announcements.

"Welcome back, and welcome to all of you. Whilst I hope you enjoy the great feast that awaits you, first I have to remind you of the rules and an announcement for this term. The forest is forbidden to any student, unless with a lesson or with Hagrid. The sixth floor is currently out of bounds so no one is permitted there, Mr Kelby will be making sure no one goes there at all. And finally a good announcement, the ball is on again this year for third- year and above, but this year there has been a change. I would like the girls to ask the boys instead of the other way round please I hope you all have a good term, now you may eat!" The headmaster said. The hall was filled with rather a few stunned looks at the change of plans with asking someone to come.

"Well the next few weeks should be fun for you Al," Clara said laughing.

"What in merlin's name do you mean?" Al said.

"Oh just you wait for all the invitations you're going to get," Clara said.

"Why?" Al asked very confused.

"Oh just you wait!" Clara said still laughing.


	12. Chapter 12- Nostalgia

**A/N: Hello! I know it's less than a week since my last post but I was in a writing mood so this chapter sort of happened. It's mainly just cute stuff that I thought of doing after seeing a Jily headcannon. But whatever , please review!**

"Good morning!" Eliza chimed as she sat down on the Gryffindor table at breakfast; she was met with tired grumbles, "I said good morning!"

"Morning!" A few people mumbled.

"Well you all seem like rays of sunlight this morning," Eliza said as she started buttering some toast.

"What'd ya say?" Poppy mumbled as her head rose up from her plate, she had fallen asleep and now had a piece of toast lathered with jam was stuck to the side of her face.

"Poppy, exactly how much sleep did you get last night?" Clara asked from the opposite side of the table.

"Umm, I don't know, maybe like two-ish. By 6am I lost a clue of the time, the sun had risen though…I think…" Poppy mumbled sleepily, as Chris handed her tissues and she got the toast and jam off her face.

"What on earth were you doing?" Chris asked.

"Reading," Poppy asked.

"Seriously, come on we all decided that after the incident in second year we would stop this midnight reading thing," Rose said.

"Sadly, I believe this may have been my fault," Eliza said quietly.

"Eliza!" Rose practically shouted before lots of people started staring at her.

"It was a really good book though, and all I did was lend it to her. I only sort of fuelled the fire, I didn't start it. And may I say that I did say to Poppy not to do a midnight reading spree," Eliza protested.

"Eh, well it doesn't really matter anymore does it? I will just sleeping in History of magic or something," Poppy said as her eyes drifted closed, before Eliza poked her and she opened her eyes wide again.

"Poppy! You can't do that!" Rose exclaimed, but no one else protested or anything. History of Magic was the most boring subject ever; it didn't help that it was taught by a ghost, who had a very monotone voice and didn't put in any effort to try and make it interesting.

A few minutes later Al and Lewis came down, Al looked worse for wear.

"That bad, huh?" Clara asked as she handed them teas, as they sat down.

"Yup, two first years and they started fighting. My schoolbag is now broken. I had no clue that this ball would be this manic, girls' fighting basically over me is not fun," Al said.

"What did I tell you?" Clara said a little smug.

"It was bad, and I only walked with you from the dorm to the hall," Lewis said.

"I'm fine now, it wasn't the worst so whatever. What've we got today?" Al asked.

"Dark arts, transfig, runes and History of Mag," Eliza said glumly.

"At least you don't have divination; I have it just before lunch as well. On my own, without any friends there!" Chris complained.

"Well firstly Sophie and Ava are in your class and your friends with them. And secondly taking divination was your choice, we all said don't do it as it sucks," Rose said.

"I don't know them that well yet. Lorcan and Scor haven't been good friends with them for a while. And it wasn't my choice, my mum insisted that I do it," Chris said glumly.

"I wish we didn't have to, you know go to school every day. I wish we were still in primary school, when like nothing mattered at all," Clara said.

"That's a peculiar thing to say so early in the morning. Well anyway, you wouldn't know you were a witch or any of us, so obviously being here is the better option," Eliza said.

"You lot kinda suck anyway. At least I could do the randomist things without being judged. Like watching Cinderella all day, eating ice cream in pjs," Clara said.

"Why would you watch that?" Al cried looking horrified

"A Disney film, what did you think it was? A disease?" Clara said laughing; Als face dropped even more despite that looked almost impossible.

"Yes!" Al said horrified, "What the hell is Disney?"

"You're not serious right?" Eliza asked chuckling, Al held his stare.

"What are you on about, what's Tisney?" Louis asked.

"It's Disney. And they are being serious aren't they. Their fourteen and have never watched a Disney film. If you were a muggle you'd be an alien to them," Eliza said.

"Right okay just checking. Do any of you know what a Disney is, or are all of you aliens?" Clara asked.

"Nope," Al and Louis said, Chris and Rose shook their heads.

"Do you guys seriously not know what Disney movies are?" Lewis asked, "Even I like the princess ones."

"Seriously Lewis?" Poppy said laughing.

"What?" Lewis protested.

"Oh merlin's pants! It's nearly nine we have got to go if we don't want Kirk to kill us. There are like only twenty in our class, so we make up like fifty percent of it. Get a move on," Rose practically screamed as she checked her watch.

"Oh god yeah! We have to go, but its Saturday tomorrow and I don't have Quidditch. We'll speak to the others later but I will send an owl or something to my mum. And we will go to the room of requirement and watching Disney films all day," Clara said as she quickly downed the dregs of her tea.

"Sure, whatever. Come on we gotta scoot," Louis said as he got up from the table and walked out of the great hall.

They all quickly left and rushed back to the common room to get their bags before Defence against the Dark Arts started. They ran into the room a few minutes late, usually Professor Kirk was late, but not on that day.

"Your late, Clara, Albus, Chris, Lorcan, Lysander, Louis, Lewis, Poppy, Rose and Eliza. Seriously that is like half the class, sit down all of you. Textbooks out. Right we're doing Curses today," Professor Kirk said a little sternly, but after a few minutes he eased up and they went off topic, as per usual.

"So what's happening this weekend then. It's not Hogsmeade is it?" Kirk asked.

"Nope, it's the second week back. So no Quidditch either it sucks," A girl called Sophie said, she was a friend of Lorcan's in Ravenclaw. The class had just less than twenty students, it was a compulsory subject but there were four classes all at different times.

"Well what are you doing then, instead I mean? Homework? Surely you don't have much yet? Do you?" The professor asked as he stretched his back and leaned against the table.

"We have like six pieces, some teachers are so mean," Poppy complained.

"You don't even want to know how awful the teachers were when I was here. Ugh, potions professor. I shudder at the thought of him. Well other than that. What are you lot doing? Because I would like to think at least someone was doing something more interesting then what I'm doing, which is a ton of marking," He said.

"Disney Marathon, not because we are five, but because apparently they haven't watched any of them yet," Eliza said as she motioned towards Chris, Louis, Rose and Al.

"I loved those movies when I was younger. Aladdin was my favourite!" He said excitedly before he checked the time on the wall, "Oh sorry guys. I need to set you some work as we have nothing today, Sorry. Right could you please all look up three different curses and write their origins, effects and notable uses. Doesn't matter exactly how much you write but please hand it in next lesson. If you can't do it or don't have time please come and see me as soon as possible. I will just need to say this first on curses. Right okay then, well basically they are usually used to inflict pain or something of the like to the victim. For this reason they are generally quite famous in duels. The most notable curses obviously you already know about, the unforgivable curses. But please don't write about them because we spend a good few weeks learning about them soon. Please try and find interesting ones please not boring ones. Also we're doing hex's as well soon as well so reading about them would help. Okay pack up and go. See you next week."

They all left the room and dragged on with the boring lessons that day. By the end of the day they all flopped on their beds in their dormitory.

"Ugh, so glad that's done and no Quidditch tomorrow. Only nostalgia, I love those movies. Right I need to write to Mum now," Clara said.

"Don't worry about that I already brought the movies with me. I always bring them with me, you know in case, I get lonely or homesick," Eliza said as she held up the DVDs for Beauty and The Beast and Aladdin.

"Phew! My mum wouldn't reply probably anyway. She travels to Scotland to a huge telescope on Fridays usually. Oh merlin! I was supposed to write to my aunt and uncle on the first day and I still haven't. Mum will kill me if she finds out. I'll go and do it now," Clara said as she lept up and scribbled the letter out on the desk.

"What are you doing later?" Anna asked.

"I'm meeting someone," Eliza said as she walked up to the mirror and started fixing her hair.

"Are you seeing your boyfriend?" Clara mocked.

"Oh, ha ha! And he just is my boyfriend, no mocking about it," Eliza said, "Does my hair look okay?"

"It looks fine, just leave it. Where are you going anyway, with Lysander your boyfriend?" Poppy said mocking a little at the end.

"We're going-"Eliza started.

"Ooh have you asked him to the ball yet?" Clara asked.

"No, but we're going for a picnic for dinner. And I'm going to ask him tonight I think," Eliza said. She left twenty minutes later, around the same time that everyone else went down to dinner. She wasn't back when they went to bed, but Clara looked through the window and saw them packing up their things and starting to walk back inside.

The next morning, they all traipsed up to the seventh floor and went into the room of requirement. It already had a TV, sofas, cushions and blankets.

"I never knew this place existed. This is awesome!" Sophie said.

"Yeah! This is so cool!" A girl called Ava said, she was a friend of Scorpius', and loved Disney movies.

"We come here quite often actually due to the added benefit of it getting extra stuff, dependent on what you need the room for. Hence the room of requirement," Clara said as she grabbed a blanket and threw it down on a sofa.

"So, I think we should start with either Aladdin or the little mermaid. Any opinions?" Eliza said as she stood by the DVD player.

"Little mermaid," Clara answered, the ones which had watched them before all nodded in unison. Eliza grabbed the DVD and pushed it into the DVD slot, and pressed play. Everyone hushed silent as the DVD started.

It was clear from their faces that they'd enjoyed it.

"Good then?" Ava said laughing, they all nodded in agreement.

"Even though it was a princess movie, it was so good," Chris said, "What's next?"

"Aladdin, then Cinderella. We can decide what next after that?" Eliza said, everyone nodded. She went and sat back next to her boyfriend, who had answered yes to the ball invite.

For the rest of the day they sat about watching Disney movies, with a large bowl of popcorn. It was very nostalgic as they sat there laughing and wrapped in fluffy blankets. At the end they all had just some popcorn left but were all sprawled out over the sofas.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Al shouted after Poppy had chucked a piece of popcorn at the back of his head. He chucked a handful back at Poppy, but they ended up hitting Louis as well, who she was sitting next to.

"Hey!" Louis yelled back as he grabbed loads and chucked them onto the sofa in front of his, It sprayed popcorn everywhere, due to his poor aim, but it was irrelevant by that point , as everyone started grabbing handfuls and chucking them everywhere. It was a frenzy of popcorn, raining down everywhere. After a while they had run out and they settles down, well a few of them had fallen asleep, as it was rather late. Slowly everyone drifted off apart from Clara and Al. They weren't tired at all and so got their blankets and pillows together and huddled together round the fireplace. The fire was slowly dying, but it still gave out some warmth.

"So today was fun then!" Clara whispered to him.

"Yeah they were all really great," Al whispered back.

"Favourite?" Clara asked, looking over to her friend.

"I know it's a princess one, but Beauty and The Beast," Al answered.

"Same actually," Clara said, the area around them was lit with a golden yellow light. The light shone over to the sofa where Eliza, Louis, Lysander, Poppy, Rose and Scorpius were. Eliza and Rose weren't fast asleep yet and as they were moving around Eliza opened her eyes.

"Rose! Rose!" Eliza whispered, Rose opened her eyes.

"Eliza, what is it?" Rose whispered in a slow grumble. Eliza's smile widened and she made a huge gesture with her arms to where Clara and Al were. It was a wonder how they didn't notice Eliza talking and flailing her arms round manically. They were talking in soft whispers and just staring at each other really oblivious to what was going on around them. Maybe it was romantic? Maybe not? But they sure as hell needed to be a little more honest with each other as they were quite clearly lost in each other's eyes at that moment.

"I told you so!" Eliza whispered as she sat back down, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Clara and Al were now laying down next the fire, opposite each other still.

"Thank you for today. It was honestly a lot of fun," Al said as he lay down.

"You're welcome," She whispered amongst yawns, she started closing her eyes but her smile remained as her eyes finally shut.


	13. Chapter 13 - Dancing by the firelight

Chapter 13- Dancing by the firelight

 **A/N: Hi! I know I haven't updated in a few weeks, school has been quite busy. But I then felt the need to write some adorable Al and Claraness so I did. Please review! :) Hope you like it!**

The moon shone brightly, seeping through the half closed curtains, casting small strips of light around the room. The whole room was silent, save for the soft crackle of the fire; it made their faces glow a golden yellow. Still no one spoke, and they sat in a watchful silence. They had finished their homework ages ago, but had stayed despite the fact it was Saturday the following day, and a few of them would have to get up early for Quidditch practice.

Ava sighed heavily as she rested her head on her closed fist.

"What?" Lewis asked, breaking the silence. Everyone jumped out of their dazes and turned to him.

"Oh, nothing?" She said distantly, her mind clearly was on other things, but she didn't obviously care to talk about them though.

"Oh okay," Lewis said as he stared into the bright golds, reds, and oranges burning on the hearth.

"Oh elephants- "Eliza shouted suddenly as she turned to her school bag. Everyone stopped and stared at her.

"Oh elephants!" Poppy said laughing, "Seriously El! Oh Elephants"

"Oh stop it!" Eliza said as she gave her a long and hard stare, "its Hogsmeade next weekend isn't it?"

"Yeah why?" Lysander asked, "I already asked you to go with me. Please stop panicking."

"Yeah, yeah. I know that," Eliza said as she swivelled around and scrummaged around her bag.

"What the hell are you looking for? It's like midnight on a Friday…wait Saturday. I don't know days," Clara exclaimed.

"A list!" Eliza said, with a sort of A ha! To it as she got out a thick blue notebook.

"Eliza you don't need a list it's over a week away!" Poppy said rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, I do!" Eliza said as she started scribbling stuff madly in her notebook.

"Eliza," Lysander said as he took her pen away and closed her notebook. Eliza stared back looking like a lost puppy until he handed them back. She had the sense to put them away.

Scorpius stood up stretching his back,

"Are we ready to go then?" He asked as he put his hands on his hips. They all shook their heads; he sat down awkwardly.

"I'm not tired at all," Clara said smiling as she lay down on her front and rested her head on her chin.

"Well what shall we do then? We can't just sit here till Saturday," Scorpius said.

"Ooh I have an idea," Al said suddenly, as he got up and walked over to the shelves, where all the random stuff was kept.

"What are you looking for?" Scorpius asked.

"Aha! This!" Al said excitedly, as he pulled out a rather large cassette player.

"Oh god, why?" Poppy said.

"Those are so old. Even my mum has barely any tapes anymore," Clara said.

"I have vinyls and tapes in my room," Al said as he rifled through his school bag, clearly looking for something.

"What? Are you serious?" Louis asked.

"Dead serious," Al said as he out his black coat and picked up a shimmery cloak and some old battered papers.

"Al, it's like midnight, you'd get caught and get no end of detentions," Clara said.

"Well that sentence made no sense. And that's why we got these," Al said as he waved up the cloak and papers, "But I do need someone to go with me please?"

"I'll go," Louis said standing up, and following Al out of the door.

"Right, get under the cloak," Al whispered, as he chucked the cloak over both of them.

"How the hell is this going to disguise us? The prefects sure won't notice two figures walking in a bright and shining cloak at midnight, through the halls having no idea where they're going, bumping into random objects. This is such a great idea Al! Sure whatever can't wait to waste my evenings and Saturdays in detention," Louis complained, Al rolled his eyes and sighed heavily.

"It's an invisibility cloak it was my grandfathers. I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," Al said as he pointed his wand at the papers and the maps ink started to show, "And this is the marauders map, so we don't get lost."

They walked in silence, steeping wearily when they saw the pairs of prefects.

"So you annoyed then?" Al asked as they walked up the stairs.

"What?" Louis asked, very confused.

"About El?" Al asked as if Louis was asking a stupid question.

"What?" Louis asked again.

"Ugh. Are you annoyed about Eliza and Lysander?" Al asked annoyed.

"Oh that? No I don't like her like that, she's just a good friend," Louis said relieved.

"Right sure," Al scoffed.

"No _right sure_ about it," Louis said mimicking Al, "She's just my friend. And she's with Ly now anyway. They're going to Hogsmeade together."

"Oh my god lay off it Louis. I know you like her, you really just need to talk to her," Al said suddenly, practically shouting.

"No I-"Louis started.

"No Louis please you're kidding yourself. We've all seen the way you look at her. It's like the way Rose and Scor look at each other, and we all know that they need to just get together already. Your eyes bloody light up whenever she speaks to you. I may sound like a girl, but for god's sake, for your benefit and ours please just bloody speak to her. I bet she even feels the same and I'm sure you could explain to Ly, and he'd understand," Al said as they reached the common room. Louis was about to protest again but when they stepped into the portrait hole they found some seventh years asleep on the sofa, textbooks still in their hands.

They crept through the room, silent bar the distant rumble of snores. They reached their room, still standing on tiptoes as John was asleep on his bed. Al took off the cloak and put the map on his bed. He quietly tried to get his trunk open, but there was loads of stuff on top of it. Louis helped him chuck the strewn clothes onto his bed. And then Al riffled through his really messy trunk, until he found an old battered cardboard box with tapes and vinyl's in.

"Aha!" Al called as he got one out and shoved it in his coat pocket.

"Really? Already?" Louis asked as he ruffled his hair.

"Yup! Come on let's go" Al said as he picked up the cloak and map. They left the room, quietly pulling the door shut.

"So what about you and Clara then?" Louis asked, with a grin on his face, as they left the tower, and started walking down the stairs.

"What? No. She's like my best friend." Al scoffed, and it was quite clear that he was lying.

"Yeah, sure," Louis said suspiciously.

"Hey! No! She is just my friend! She has been for like four years now as well. We see each other every day. I don't think she could like me like that at all. There is nothing going on between us," Al said as they crept past a group of prefects.

"Well I will say I told you so when you end up going to the ball together, and dancing together all night," Louis said. They walked in silence to the Room of Requirement.

"Oh, you're back. That wasn't long," Ava called as she clambered over the pillows and blankets on the floor.

"Did you get it?" Clara asked as she stood up and stretched her back.

"Yep," Al said as he took of his coat and took out the cassette. He walked over to the shelf and put the cassette in the tape player. The Piña Colada song started blasting through the speakers.

"Are we going to like dance or whatever?" Eliza asked.

"Of course," Al and Clara said in unison. Everyone then stood up and started dancing, admittedly very badly, around the room. They shoved the pillows and blankets to the side. They were all just jumping up and down, smiling gleefully and not caring at all that they couldn't dance at all well, and looked like idiots. After a while they all began singing along, doing a weird conga around the room.

The song finished, and Hooked on a Feeling started playing.

"Oh I haven't heard this song in so long. I remembered dancing around the kitchen to it when I was younger," Clara said as she started doing the dance routine she'd done with her sister when she was younger.

"Ah yeah!" Sophie said.

"This was a mixtape my dad made for my mum as a sort of like engagement present years ago. I was sorting through some boxes in the attic a few summers ago. I found a few old boxes of like tapes and vinyl's with dad. We got out the old record player and a cassette player, and played them as we sorted the stuff out. He said I could pick out whichever ones I wanted, as long as I ran it past my mum first," Al said, " And she was fine with me taking them. She always said she loved these songs. We play this tape every Christmas before the family swarms the place. No offence."

"None taken," Louis and Rose said at the same time.

"Christmas is hell for us lot," Rose said glumly.

"You do have a huge family," Scorpius said.

"We have like," Clara started before she abruptly stopped jumping and ran all the number through her head, "10 of us at my grandparents at Christmas."

"Try 18. I think…at last count at least," Rose said.

"Must be tight," Ava said.

"You think," Louis said.

They stopped talking and continued with their dancing and bad singing. There were seven songs on the tape and it was 2am by number six, Viva La Vida by Coldplay. But despite them all being so tired they still were really loud and enthusiastic, screaming the words and jumping frantically up and down.

When the last song came on everyone slowed down, it was O children by Nick Cave, the song Rose's mum and Al's dad had danced to when they were running from the death eaters and looking for the horcruxes. It was a lot slower than the other songs, but held some sort of sentimentality between Rose and Al's parents. It was a big marker of their friendship really.

Lysander and Eliza started dancing together; Lysander took her hand and started twirling her around. He reeled back for a moment and put a piece of her hair behind her ear. They were smiling right at each other, Lysander's eyes lit up. Al saw this and glanced over at Louis, who had a sad puppy look, rather like Eliza's. He then took Sophie into the middle, and they started dancing together as well, giggling as they attempted to waltz.

"Want to dance?" Clara asked Al after a few moments, as she stood with her arms crossed, standing on the side next to him. Everyone else was now dancing in pairs but them. Al nodded and Clara took his hand and led him to where everyone else was dancing. He put his arms around her neck; she was little bit shorter than him, and they started just swaying and twirling around. She smiled and looked into his green eyes; he smiled back staring into her luminous blue ones. They learned in and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Aww look, they so love each other," Eliza whispered to Louis, everyone else had stopped dancing, they high-fived.

"I know, I was talking to him earlier. They are so denying it," Louis whispered back.

"Yes, they so need to ask each other to Hogsmeade," Eliza said as she crossed her arms and started chewing her nails.

Al and Clara were oblivious to them and were just zoned out from the rest of the world, and were just dancing with each other. The song ended, and she took her head off his shoulder. He kept her arms around her neck. They hadn't stopped swirling, or taken their eyes of each other. They stopped, still not letting go of their gaze and leaned in. Al put his hands in her hair and kissed her.


	14. Chapter 14- Hogsmeade Hills

Chapter 14

Clara kissed him back, and everyone around the room was in a stunned silence. Eliza and Louis looked at each other with an amazed look and then jumped up and did an air high- five. Clara and Al broke away, still holding hands, and walked over to the sofas.

"Omg! Totally called it!" Eliza exclaimed excitedly, as she started jumping around.

"What?" Clara and Al said in unison as they turned around.

"Oh for god's sake you two. You have been on the brink of this for four years. And you have finally kissed," Eliza said, as she made huge gestures with her hands.

"What? No!" Al said taken aback, as he let go of her hand, and crossed his arms.

"I agree," Clara said as she got her bag, around her shoulder, "Anyways, it's late now and we need to go to bed we have Quidditch in the morning."

Al got the tape out of the player, and picked his bag up, strapping it over his shoulder and then taking Clara's hand as they walked out of the door.

"So that was fun," Clara said as they snuck past some prefects on the way back to the common room, they hadn't bothered with the cloak or map this time.

"Yeah, it was. Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me next week?" Al asked.

"Sure. I can't wait. Just one thing, we were, or are, like best friends and if anything were to happen, please can we make some sort of pack for it to not be weird and for us to stay friends afterwards, please. If not for our sake for everyone else's, you know it would be awful if we just blatantly refused to speak to each other," Clara said as she stopped and turned back to Al.

"Of course, I do understand. And despite what I said to El. I am happy that it did happen, well eventually at least. Not that I have been like trying to you know, snog you for like four years. You have been one of my best friends for four years, and I just am, well happy that, you're…well…if you want to be, my girlfriend now. Sorry if that was forward or wrong or anything, I don't know what I'm doing at all you know," Al said stuttering, as he continued walking up the stairs.

"Oh sorry, yeah of course. And like don't worry about anything I am as confused as you are. And like for being friends for so long, you know, we already know a lot about each other. Just relax really, we're just dating that's all. Right, this is too heavy for like 2:30 in the morning. Okay please can we just talk about something else, sorry," Clara said as she run her hands through her hair nervously.

"I am sorry. So Quidditch, we have the match soon against Slytherin," Al said as they reached the top of the stairs and started ascending the next.

"Yeah, well at least we have a good team. Like with Fred, your brother, you, Lily, Chris and Roxie. But then again, no offence, James works us damn hard," Clara said.

"Yeah, I know. He is just too competitive most of the time and takes out all the anger on the rest of us. It does not really help that he's related to like eighty percent of the team, and so because he knows all of us so well there is less consequence to, you know, being harsh," Al said as they reached the portrait hole.

"Yeah, I know. It doesn't bother me that he's harsh really, he has been our captain for like two years now, and we have won every year since I joined. I guess it just pays off sometimes, and I wish he didn't force us out so early…in the mud…and rain…every single week," Clara said as they crept past the seventh years sleeping on the sofa.

"Ah well, we put up with it fine and the hot chocolates and cakes the house elves make us afterwards are really yummy," Al said as they reached the top of the stairs, " So goodnight I guess."

Al gave Clara a hug and gave her a kiss on the cheek before he opened the door to his room and went in. Clara went up the stairs to her room, running up two steps at a time, swinging open the door and shutting it. She leaned back on the door, his gleeful grin still on. Anna was still awake doing some homework on her bed.

"Right okay what happened, I haven't seen you looking this happy in ages?" Anna said as she put her parchment down and sat up, crossing her legs. Clara didn't say anything, but just squealed and starting jumping up and down, as she threw all her stuff onto her bed.

"I guess it was a good thing then," Anna said laughing.

Clara still hadn't stopped jumping or making odd noises. A few moments later Rose, Eliza and Poppy walked in chatting, they all stopped when they saw Clara squealing and jumping up and down.

"Right Clara, please calm down," Eliza said as she walked over to her and grabbed her arms and held her down, "Right now are you going to stop jumping."

Clara nodded.

"Okay right I am going to let go. You are going to shush and sit down. And then tell us all, "Eliza said as she let go, and Clara immediately started jumping up and down again.

"Clara!" They all shouted in unison.

"Okay, okay!" Clara said as she took the chair from her desk and pulled the chair in front of the fireplace, so all the beds were facing the chair.

"Now please tell us everything. So how was the kiss?" Poppy said excitedly.

"What you kissed someone? Who?" Anna practically shouted.

"Al," Clara said with a huge grin on her face.

"Aw, that's cute. I thought that you two would be adorable together," Anna said as she rested her head on her hand, "Now please for merlin's sake tell us everything."

"Alright, alright. So basically I just, like asked him to dance with me on the last song. He like agreed and I took him to where everyone was dancing. It was cute you know, and like I may have had a teeny bit of a crush on him, but like we are like best friends. So when we started dancing he put his hands around my neck, and then I leaned in resting my head on his shoulder. Side point, he smells great, I don't mean that I like sniffed him or anything weird. I just had my head resting on his shoulder and I could smell his clothes. He smells like honey and lemons, it's great," Clara said with a huge grin on her face, and her knees curled up to her chin.

"Ew, he's my cousin. It's like you talking about how great my like brother smells. Please just make it sound like you kissed some random guy, not my cousin," Rose said.

"Fine okay. So we just sort of got lost in the moment, twirling and swaying round with each other. It felt like I was floating on air, and nothing ever mattered anymore, just being there with him. And I presume he felt sort of the same way as when the song ended, he just put his hands in my hair. Not in like a mean, ruff way but like a romantic one. And like he just leaned in and he kissed me. It was so great, and like I haven't kissed anyone properly before, only like a peck on the cheek in primary school. But oh, it was so great. And I am sorry Rose but like your cousin is a really good kisser. And when we…you know…stopped, he just like took my hand. Holding in my utterly gleeful smile and laughter was like the hardest thing I have had to do, like ever. So we just got our stuff and left. Oh before I forget I am so sorry that we didn't help to clear up, we were preoccupied. So, were was I. Right we had left the room and we just started walking back to the tower. He asked me to Hogsmeade, and I basically just explained how that if we you know broke up or something, I would hope that we could remain friends. I told him to promise that we would remain friends. And then after that he was really awkward, and confirmed that I was his girlfriend. He was just so cutely nervous. We chatted a bit more and then when we got up the top of the stairs, he hugged, and then gave me a kiss on the cheek. I ran up the stairs, jumped around, talked to Anna and then explained it to you lot. And that's where I am now," Clara said.

"Aw, that's so cute," Eliza said, as she hugged her knees.

"So you two are like dating now?" Poppy asked.

"Yes, we are. And oh it was so nice, aw he's so great," Clara said as she yawned and got out of the chair.

"Shall we go to bed now then? Gossiping done. We have stuff to do tomorrow," Rose said, as she took off her jumper.

"Yeah I guess so. I have no clue how I will sleep though. I am just replaying those moments in my head all the time," Clara said as she lept onto her bed.

They all got ready for bed and tried to get to sleep. Clara didn't though; she just had a huge smile on her face as she tried to close her eyes and go to sleep.

"Morning," Lily grumbled from over the table the following Friday morning.

"Come on Lil, it's the weekend tomorrow, and we get to go to Hogsmeade. It's your first time going as well, cheer up!" Al said as he swung his legs under the table at breakfast.

"Ugh," Lily grumbled back, as her face fell down into her plate.

"Lily," James said as he clicked his fingers in front of her face, to check that she was still awake and helped her remove the plate that was now attached to her cheek.

"Which unlucky girl are you taking to Hogsmeade this time?" Lily asked as she removed the remnants of marmite of her face. James glared at her before answering,

"Georgie Mcdavers in Slytherin. She asked me in Potions the other day after class," James answered, still a bit annoyed.

"I swear you were going out with Emily Crewe like not even a few days ago," Lily said.

"No we're not going out anymore. Are you two losers bringing anyone?" James asked.

"I'm 13," Lily said bluntly.

"Al?" James asked again.

"Yes and no I'm not telling you, before you pester me to eternity. And I'm bored now so I'm going to chat to Eliza now," Al said as he got out and walked down to where Eliza was sat alone.

"Morning!" Al said cheerily to Eliza.

"Morn. What have we got next ?I have got a total blank," Eliza said as she crunched down on her toast.

"Umm…Potions. I think, wait…I don't know. Have you seen Clara yet?" Al asked as he looked around for her, "Wait, where is like everyone else from your dorm, and mine?"

"I actually have no clue, everyone else was in the common room when I left. I hadn't seen Louis or Rose though, don't know why though. I guess they'll turn up later, shall we go in a minute. You still hungry?" Eliza asked as she finished her tea.

"Nah, I'm done. To potions we go," Al answered as he lept up and dragged his feet out of the bench.

"Yep," Eliza said as she got up and started walking down the great hall," So how's it going with Clara?"

"Fine, we have literally only been going out a week. What about you and Ly, then?" Al answered as they left the great hall.

"Oh, yeah, we're fine. I can't wait till Hogsmeade though, Ly said that he'd take me to the Hogs Head for drinks and that I could buy a few books. And only a few as Rose basically shouted at him for getting me some books the other week, as my to-read pile is too huge. Well anyway, what are you going to do with Clara then?" Eliza said.

"Oh I think we'll just walk around. She hates shopping, so I said we could just around the hill for a bit. I am a bit nervous though, it is our, like, first date. I hope she doesn't like see that I didn't buy her like everything in the Quidditch supplies store or the book store and like immediately break up with me. I just hope she doesn't immediately decide she hates me," Al said as he ran his hands though his hair nervously.

"Al, please just calm down. She really likes you and, you and I both know that she would never expect you to do anything like that. She's going to love it I know she will. Just relax, okay she really likes you. Come on we need to hurry up," Eliza said as she patted his back and comforted him.

"Come on loser get up," Rose joked as she rolled Clara over the following morning.

"Ugh, it's too early," Clara moaned as she rolled back over, and shoved her face in her pillow.

"Clara it's half an hour later than when you usually get up. Come on its Hogsmeade," Rose said as she ripped the duvet off her and chucked it on the floor

"Noooo!" Clara moaned as she wiggled around and then curled up in a foetal position.

"Come on!" Eliza exclaimed, as she yanked Clara's arm.

"Ugh!" Clara groaned as she slowly turned at sat up on the side of the bed.

"Bathrooms free!" Anna called as she left the bathroom. Everyone shared the same look

"Mine!" Clara yelled as she sprinted to the bathroom, forgetting her stuff. Clara begrudgingly opened the door with an irritated face as she swung it open.

"Forget something?" Eliza asked with a huge grin, Clara gave her a hard stare.

"Ugh, I have no clue what to wear. What the hell am I supposed to wear? Jeans, trousers, skirt, dress? Ah I don't know what to do?" Clara called as she started rummaging through her trunk.

"Do you want the bathroom or not?" Rose asked.

"Well obviously not now as I have no freaking clue what to wear?" Clara exclaimed.

"Well you will be wearing a coat so maybe not a dress, as it doesn't look very good with it. I think jeans, this shirt, and that cardigan," Eliza said as she squatted down next to Clara, by her trunk

"Do I have to wear a coat?" Clara asked.

"Duh. It's like November, and you will get a cold, and spread it to all of us. And then it will mutate and turn into this huge and deadly virus that will kill us all," Eliza said.

"El, calm down. It won't be that bad. Okay so these jeans, this shirt, this cardigan, my black coat and how about this scarf?" Clara said as she stood up and pulled some dark blue jeans, a white shirt cropped shirt with giraffes, a black cardigan and a cream infinity scarf.

"Yes that's great. Come on Rose is coming out go have a shower and get ready," Eliza said as she stretched her back and stood up.

Twenty minutes later…

"Does this look okay?" Eliza asked as she fumbled around with her hair in front of the mirror.

"It looks great," Rose answered as she grabbed her gloves and hat out of her trunk.

"Not too childish?" Eliza asked, her hair had two front pieces in small bunches.

"Nope, it looks great. It really suits you," Poppy said as she put on her coat and jumped down onto her bed.

"What should I do with my hair?" Clara asked after she'd spent around three minutes messing around with her hair.

"Just clip to bits back and leave out those super wavy bits at the front," Eliza said as she walked over to the door.

"Okay so do I look okay?" Clara asked as she did what Eliza had said and she brushed fluff off her coat.

"Great, we all look great. Come on they'll be waiting in the entrance hall," Eliza said as she opened the door.

A bit later Clara and Al were walking hand in hand down the path to Hogsmeade.

"You look really nice by the way," Al said.

"Thank you. It took me ages to decide what to wear, and it was only Eliza who eventually picked this out for me," Clara replied, "So what are we going then?"

"I know you hate shopping so I thought we could just walk around the outside of Hogsmeade. Round the hills and stuff, and if you want we could go back for Lunch or we could go to a place in the village. Sound okay?" Al said as they reached the village and took a left onto the footpath that lead around the hills.

"Yes, it really does. I was kind of hoping you wouldn't take me shopping, as you're right I do hate it. Come on I'll race you to that cattle grid!" Clara said a little relieved, before they both started sprinting to the cattle grid.

A few hours later they were sat on the bench on top of the hill, looking over the valley.

"Thank you so much by the way. This has been really nice," Clara said as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"It has, I really love walking. But we rarely get much time to do it on the holidays and stuff because of Dad's work. It really sucks," Al said as he clasped her hand, and slouched a bit more into the bench, making himself comfortable.

"Oh we live like in the hills back home. So I can literally run anywhere from there. I have told you before about the woods at the back of my house but they are really great to walk or run in. And there isn't much chance to do that here. I do occasionally go running with Eliza on Sundays but not as much as I would like to. Please to stop me if I'm garbling away," Clara said.

"Nah. You really aren't garbling, it's nice really. I'm not really one for talking all the time; I actually really like just listening to you talking all the time. Not that you do, just it's sweet and nice. It may sound weird but I just really like hearing your voice. And if you want we could go running together when Eliza won't come?" Al said, as he looked over the valley below, the sun glazing all over the roof tops.

"It's not weird I don't think. I like the way you always run your hands through your hair when you're nervous. It is cute. And maybe, if it's not too early, we could go for a run before Quidditch on Saturdays? If you don't want to that's like totally fine, but it would be nice to wake up to a crisp morning run before a gruelling Quidditch practice," Clara responded.

"Actually I agree, and that would be really good. And with the hair thing, my mum used to get so annoyed, as it meant my hair was always really messy, my dad does is as well. I think she secretly really likes it though. I can see her smiling when he's not looking," Al said laughing.

"Aw, that's actually really cute. I wish I had some sort of stories, at least, about my parents. I have barely any memories of my dad, I only really remember him spinning me around in the kitchen. But my mum does say about the way he always bites his lip when he's busy working, like me and Katie do," Clara said.

"Why don't you just make your own stories about your parents? And whizzing you around is a great memory; my dad is always so busy. I only have limited memories as well. Merlin's beard that sounded so ignorant. I didn't mean it like that, your dad's not alive and mine is. I'm acting all ungrateful. I am so sorry, please shut me up," Al said as he let her off his shoulder, and stood up, brushing his hands through his hair and stepping away.

"Al, seriously it's okay. You're not being ignorant. I probably shouldn't've brought my dad up at all, I'll leave it. Come on," Clara said as she walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Okay, then. Are you sure you are okay, though?" Al asked, as he took her hand and they started walking down the path back to the village.

"I'm fine. Come on we need to go before Filtch realises we're not back, and walks up the Hill, whilst deciding the many ways at which he can kill us both," Clara said, as she lead him on quicker.

"Okay then," Al said as he leaned in and kissed her.


End file.
